Metalasia erubescens Dc.

Erect sometimes sprawling shrublet, slender or sometimes robust, sparingly to much-branched, up to 1 m high, but mostly not exceeding 0.5 m. Branches ascending to erect, young densely to sparsely whitish-tomentose, older becoming glabrous or nearly so, with indistinct to distinct leaf-scars. Foliage dense or sometimes sparse. Leaves erect-spreading or sometimes spreading, mostly slightly curved outwards, sometimes straight, with axillary brachyblasts less than half as long as the subtending leaf, much to highly involute, or sometimes slightly involute, linear to oblanceolate or sometimes narrowly obovate, 1.7-18 x 0.4-1.7 mm, acute or rarely rounded and obtuse, mostly about half-twisted, glabrous to very sparsely pubescent, or rarely densely pubescent, sometimes with an indistinct midvein towards the base. Synflorescenses (5-)10-50 mm wide, dense, mostly conspicuously branched, with (few)10 to numerous capitula arranged in (few)5-35 mostly conspicuously branched clusters, each containing few to 30 capitula; a few individually arranged capitula sometimes also present. Peduncles (0-)2-13 mm long. Capitula 3(occasionally 4-5)-flowered, sessile or with pedicels up to 2.5(-10) mm long, free from one another but in dense clusters sometimes slightly fused by hairs, often less than lower half of each capitulum hairy. Involucre narrowly cyathiform to narrowly campanulate and sometimes slightly widened above, or sometimes narrowly obtriangular, apically 1.5-2.5 mm wide, up to 3.5 mm wide at anthesis. Involucral bracts in (4-)5-7(-8) series, gradually longer inwards, rarely of subequal length, outermost about 1/3-1/2 as long as the innermost, outermost subfoliaceous to subpetaloid, those inwards petaloid, outermost subulate-lanceolate to narrowly oblong, those inwards narrowly lanceolate to narrowly obovate, all except outermost with narrow or rarely broad hyaline margins, outermost acute, those inwards obtuse and rounded and apiculate to tridentate (the lateral teeth smaller than the middle one) and with a transverse ridge subapically, all apically erect and sometimes slightly concave, outermost with interlocking hairs reaching above the middle of the bract, those inwards less hairy to glabrous, outermost whitish to reddish to pink, those inwards distinctly reddish above the stereome but otherwise pink or rarely white, innermost with a stereome about 1.5-2(-3) times as long as the lamina. Corolla narrowly cylindrical, 2.8-4.0 mm long; lobes erect. Anthers apically rounded to truncate. Cypselas narrowly oblong to elliptic-oblong or rarely oblong, 1.8-2.9 mm long, with a conspicuous annular ridge, unevenly ridged, brown. Pappus bristles with a serrate and narrow to broad shaft, apically flattened to flat and often entire, or slightly serrate to slightly dentate, sometimes thickened towards the very apex, or entirely subterete, obtuse to acute.