Mairia purpurata (L.) J.C.Manning

Rosulate robust, perennial herb, (14-)25-38(-40) cm high with 1 to 3 basal leaf rosettes. Roots thick and fleshy, dark brown, rhizome woody, robust, up to 70 mm long. Leaves in basal rosette, or alternate on lower part of scape, ±(7)9 to 18 per rosette; sessile or sometimes running into 3-25 mm long, petiole-like base or only slightly narrowing; leaf axils sometimes densely lanate; blade varying from narrowly elliptic to elliptic to narrowly or broadly obovate, (30-)43-100(-125) x (7-)15-35(-50) mm; apex obtuse or acute; margin crenate to dentate or sometimes almost entire, but then with some peg-like denticulations, revolute; obscurely net-veined but with distinct main vein; adaxial surface glabrous or sparsely to loosely lanate, abaxial surface densely to sparsely lanate, surface visible through indumentum, appears whitish scale-like, with shiny, honey-coloured glands; coriaceous and hard, often also succulent. Scapes 1 to 3 per rosette, robust, 80-380 mm long, with solitary capitula, rarely branched in upper two-thirds, brown or tinged dark red, mostly ribbed, densely lanate along whole length or from the middle or upper parts only, thickened directly below capitula; bracteate, bracts linear, up to 50 mm long, decreasing in size upwards, indumentum as in leaves, margins crenulate or mostly entire, erect or appressed to scapes. Involucre broadly campanulate, 19-35 mm in diameter, 12-17 mm high. Involucral bracts 32 to 46, in 4 series, imbricate; bracts of outer series linear or very narrowly ovate, 7.0-8.5 x 1.5-1.8 mm, purplish, densely lanate, apex acute, margin fimbriate; bracts of second series narrowly elliptic to very narrowly obovate, 9-11 x 1.5-2.0 mm, straw-coloured or tinged purple, sparsely to densely lanate, apex acute, rarely obtuse, margin fimbriate; bracts of third series linear, slightly narrowly obovate or very narrowly elliptic, 11.5-12.5 x 1.2-2.0 mm, base straw-coloured, apical part purple, sparsely to densely lanate in upper part, glabrescent in lower part, apex acute, margin narrowly membranous, fimbriate; bracts of inner series linear, 11-13 x 0.8-1.2 mm, base straw-coloured, glabrescent to glabrous, apical part purplish, lanate, apex acute, margin membranous, fimbriate. Ray florets ±30 to 32, corolla mauve, pink, white or coral-red, limb long linear, 20-29 x 3-5 mm, 3-lobed, 4-veined, tube 5-7 mm long, laxly glandular hairy. Style up to 5.5 mm long; style branches linear-elliptic, 1.2-1.5 mm long, apex obtuse, stigmatic areas marginal, confluent at apex, sometimes not confluent and with reduced apical appendages. Staminodes absent. Cypsela and pappus as in disc florets. Disc florets many, corolla 5-6 mm long, shorter than pappus, laxly glandular hairy; lobes ±1 mm long, erect or recurved, often with marginal resin ducts, sometimes with 0.4-0.8 mm long hairs and glossy glands with rounded heads. Anthers 1.5-2.0 mm long, with ±0.5 mm long triangular apical appendages. Style ±6 mm long; style branches linear-elliptic, ±1.0-1.5 mm long; style appendages deltoid, ±0.35 x 0.2 mm. Cypselae cylindrical to fusiform, occasionally obovate, ±3.5-4.4 x 0.9-2.0 mm, brown, distinctly 4-or 5-ribbed, ribs prominently raised, mostly dark brown; with many, yellow, shiny glands and dense sericeous twin hairs, 0.4-0.5 mm long, deeply cleft, apices almost equal in length; epicarp smooth. Pappus biseriate, outer series of free barbellate bristles, 0.5-3.5 mm long, white to straw-coloured, alternately arranged to inner series; inner series of plumose bristles 6.7-7.0 mm long, nude or barbellate and fused in a ring basally, white to straw-coloured, longer than disc florets. Flowering time: July to November, after fire or in disturbed places.