Metalasia adunca Less.

Erect shrublet or shrub, much-branched, up to 1.5 m high. Branches erect, young whitish-tomentose, older becoming glabrous or nearly so, with indistinct leaf-scars. Foliage sparse to dense. Leaves erect-spreading to erect, curved outwards, without axillary brachyblasts, much to highly involute, usually linear, sometimes narrowly oblong, 1.5-10 x 0.5-0.7 mm, acute, apically hooked, non-twisted, glabrous or sometimes very sparsely pubescent, midvein invisible. Synflorescenses 8-20(-25) mm wide, dense to very dense, obscurely branched, with (few-)10-25(-numerous) capitula arranged in 1-10 obscurely branched clusters, each containing few to 10 capitula. Peduncles 0-5 mm long. Capitula 5-flowered, sessile, free from one another, lower 2/3 of each capitulum hairy. Involucre cyathiform to narrowly campanulate, apically 2-3 mm wide, sometimes up 5 mm wide at anthesis. Involucral bracts in 5-6 series, gradually longer inwards, outermost about 2/5-1/2 as long as the innermost, outermost foliaceous to scarious, those inwards petaloid and sometimes ± distinctly transparent above the stereome, outermost lanceolate to narrowly ovate, those inwards narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, all except outermost with narrow to broad hyaline margins, outermost acute, those inwards rounded to truncate and slightly emarginate, all apically erect and sometimes slightly plicate, all except outermost sometimes denticulate or irregularly dentate or apiculate, outermost with interlocking hairs reaching almost throughout the bract, those inwards less hairy to glabrous, outermost brownish to reddish to whitish, those inwards white, innermost with a stereome about 0.9-1.6 times as long as the lamina and often concave apically. Corolla slightly widened above, subclavate, 4.3-5.2 mm long, with a distinct rigid and resiniferous base; lobes slightly inflexed. Anthers apically rounded. Cypselas oblong-ovoid, sometimes oblong, (1.4-)2.4-3.3 mm long, with distinct ridges and with an inconspicuous annular ridge, brown to dark brown. Pappus bristles with a serrate and usually narrow shaft, apically often flattened or ± flat and serrate to almost entire, sometimes thickened to subterete towards the very apex, acute.