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Leaves narrowly or broadly elliptic to lanceolate or ovate, 10–30 (40) × 3–12 (17) cm., subacute to acute (obtuse to retuse occasionally in the inferior leaves), equally densely furnished on both surfaces with appressed whitish hairs or somewnat less so above (glabrescent and darkening with age), cuneate or attenuate at the base with a short (2–5 mm. long) petiole.
Outer 2 tepals of fertile flowers c. (5.5)7–9 mm. long, lanceolate, obscurely 3-nerved, the excurrent midrib forming an arista (2)3–4 mm. long, margins hyaline below; inner 3 tepals similar, scarcely shorter but more expanded below with broader hyaline margins; aristae of all tepals plumose-hairy.
Inflorescence 1.5–2 cm. in diam., hemispherical in flower and more or less spherical in fruit, formed of densely set partial inflorescences of 1–2 fertile and 1–2 sterile flowers (very occasionally a triad may be found in the largest plants).
Dwarf shrub, 8–45 cm. tall, much-branched and frequently gnarled about the base; branches terete, striate, the older parts glabrescent with a greyish to brownish cortex, the young twigs densely canescent with appressed, whitish hairs.
Fruit shortly cylindrical, (1.5)2–2.25 mm. long, densely erect-pilose on the firm, flat apex, the delicate walls glabrous; seed brown, c. 2 mm. long, shining, feebly reticulate (not perfectly mature).
Stamens (2.5)3.5–4 mm. long; filaments slender, abruptly expanded in about the basal one-third and fused into a cup, with acute sinuses between; anthers narrowly oblong, c. 1 mm. long.
Bracts deltoid lanceolate, hyaline, (3)4–5 mm. long, densely pilose centrally below and at the apex, shortly aristate with the excurrent darker midrib.
Ovary pyriform, c. 1 mm. long, furnished with dense, erect, white hairs except at the extreme base; style slender, c. 3–4 mm. long.
Silvery dwarf shrub, up to 0.65 m high. Flowers in subglobose, sessile, hairy heads, cream.
Sterile flowers of a few (2–4) narrow, plumose-hairy, linear, bracteoliform processes.
