Leucadendron sorocephalodes E.Phillips & Hutch.

Shrubs usually less than 30 cm tall, decumbent, dense, spreading 1 to 2 m wide. Branches minutely short-crisped-pubescent becoming glabrous, short, slender, tough, well clothed with leaves. Leaves of male plants up to 1.2 cm long, of female plants up to 1.8 cm long, 1.5 mm broad, narrowly linear, elliptic in cross section, tapering to a blunt mucro at the apex, narrowing slightly towards the base, numerous, thick, fleshy, glabrous, shining, sub-erect. Involucre inconspicuous. Male inflorescence 1.2 cm long, 2 cm diam., solitary, terminal, or occasionally also axiliary immediately below the main head, depressed globose, woolly, creamy white in colour, giving off a strong sweet smell. Basal bracts 6 mm long, 3.5 mm broad, 127-203 cm number, varying in size, lanceolate, acute, brown, conspicuous, glabrous, shaggy-ciliate, adjacent bracts in two spiral rows. Floral bract 6.5 mm long, 1.2 mm broad, linear, glabrous, ciliate and brown towards the apex. Floral bud 7.2 mm long, densely white-villous exceeding the apex by 1.8 mm, glabrous at the base, standing in a tuft of long hairs. Perianth tube 4-6 mm long, pubescent above. Claw 2 mm long, recuved 135°, pubescent. Limb 1.5 mm long, concave, hooked, villous. Anther 1.2 mm long, linear, curled upwards, stripped of pollen at anthesis. Pollen triangular in polar view with blunt apices and sides 37 µ long, straight or slightly hollow; polar depth 20µ. Stigma abortive, 1 mm long, narrowly clavate, cleft, acting as a pollen presenter. Style 6-8 mm long, filiform, narrower above, minutely pubescent below. Hypogynous scales 1.5-2 mm long, very slender, tapering to the apex, almost white. Nectar seen at the throat of the perianth tube. Receptacle 5 mm long, 7 mm diam., depressed globose with the florets on the upper surface. Female inflorescence 1.7 cm long, 1.3 mm diam., solitary, terminal, globose, with the creamy flowers clustered at the apex, closely resembling the male in the bud, giving off a strong sweet smell. Basal bract similar to the male, the inner becoming broader, about 132 cm number. Floral bracts 7 mm long, 6 mm broad, very hollow, orbicular, ciliate above, densely villous below. Floral bud 7.5 mm long, linear, pubescent, with a dense tuft of hairs at the apex. Perianth tube 6.5 mm long, pubescent above, glabrous, membranous, divided at the base into 4 free imbricate segments. Claw 2.5 mm long, recurved 180°, pubescent. Limb 1.5 mm long, spathulate, with a tuft of hairs at the apex. Staminode 1 mm long, linear. Ovary 1.5 mm long, ellipsoid, densely pubescent. Style 7.5 mm long, glabrous, narrower below. Stigma 0.7 mm diam., terminal, cleft. Hypogynous scales 1.5-2 mm long, very slender, tapering to the apex, almost white. Nectar seen at the throat of the perianth tube being conveyed there by capilliary action up the narrow grooves between the perianth and the four adnate filaments. Receptacle 6 mm long, 7 mm diam., depressed-globose, with the florets on the upper broadly conical surface. Mature female head dehiscent, 1.5 cm diam., globose with bracts more or less hidden by the conspicuous acute brown basal bracts. Fruit a nutlet, 6 mm long, 3 mm diam., somewhat clavate, clothed with a short erect pubescence.