Metalasia distans Dc.

Erect shrublet, slender, weak, sparingly branched, up to 0.8 m high. Branches mostly erect, young whitish-tomentose, older becoming glabrous or subglabrous, with distinct leaf-scars. Foliage very sparse. Leaves erect-spreading to erect, straight, sometimes with very small axillary brachyblasts, involute to much involute, linear, (5-)10-30 x 0.5-1.0 mm, acute, usually about half-twisted, sparsely pubescent, midvein invisible. Synflorescenses 10-25 mm wide, dense, campanulate, obscurely to more distinctly branched, with 5-30 capitula arranged in few to 10 obscurely branched clusters, each containing few to 10 capitula; some individually arranged capitula sometimes also present. Peduncles 0-10 mm long. Capitula 5-flowered, sessile or with pedicels up to 2 mm long, free from one another, lower 3/4 of each capitulum hairy. Involucre narrowly cyathiform, apically 2.5-4 mm wide. Involucral bracts in 7-9 series, gradually longer inwards, outermost about 1/4-2/5 as long as the innermost, most bracts not petaloid, outermost subfoliaceous to scarious, those inwards more scarious to petaloid, outermost ovate to narrowly lanceolate, those inwards narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, all except outermost often with narrow rarely broad hyaline margins and slightly transparent above the stereome, all acute, outermost apically erect, those inwards erect-spreading, outermost with interlocking hairs reaching to near the apex of the bract, those inwards less hairy to glabrous, outermost dark reddish, those inwards yellowish-brown with reddish tips to creamy white, innermost with a stereome about 0.7-1.2 times as long as the lamina. Corolla narrowly cylindrical, 3.4-4.3 mm long; lobes erect-spreading. Anthers with a long, narrowing and obtuse apical appendage. Cypselas narrowly oblong, 1.7-2.0 mm long, without an annular ridge, with long acute papillae, dark to blackish-brown. Pappus bristles with a serrate to slightly serrate and narrow shaft, apically flat and obtusely and inconspicuously serrate to entire, clavate at the very apex, obtuse, with inconspicuous clavate cells.