Metalasia fastigiata D.Don

Shrublet or shrub, straggling, decumbent sometimes erect, sparingly to much-branched, up to 1.5 m high, though sometimes exceeding 2 m and then supported by other plants. Branches ascending or sometimes erect, young usually densely whitish to white-tomentose, older becoming less tomentose, sometimes glabrous, without or with inconspicuous leaf-scars. Foliage dense or sometimes sparse. Leaves declinate to erect-spreading, or sometimes erect (especially on young shoots), straight, mostly with axillary brachyblasts less than half as long as the subtending leaf, much to highly involute, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, rarely narrowly oblanceolate, 3.3-22 x 0.4-1.4 mm, acute, half-twisted to twisted about once, rarely less, pubescent or sometimes glabrous, sometimes carinate and/or with a distinct mid-vein towards the base. Synflorescenses (10-)15-60 mm wide, dense, conspicuously branched, with 20 to numerous capitula arranged in 5-25 slightly to distinctly branched clusters, each containing (few-)5-35 capitula. Peduncles (3-)5-17 mm long. Capitula 5-flowered, sessile, free from one another or slightly fused by hairs, lower 1/3 of each capitulum hairy. Involucre very narrowly to narrowly cyathiform, sometimes very narrowly campanulate at anthesis, apically 1-2 mm wide. Involucral bracts in 5-7(-8) series, gradually longer inwards, outermost about half as long as the innermost, outermost subfoliaceous to scarious, those inwards petaloid, outermost usually narrowly oblong, those inwards narrowly obovate to narrowly oblanceolate, all except outermost with narrow to broad hyaline margins, outermost acute, those inwards obtuse and rounded to almost truncate and sometimes unevenly dentate, all apically erect and slightly apiculate, outermost and outer rarely deeply concave, inner and innermost sometimes slightly plicate, outermost with interlocking hairs reaching above the middle of the bract, those inwards less hairy to glabrous, outermost brownish or sometimes reddish, those inwards often reddish above the stereome but otherwise white to pink, innermost with a stereome about (1-)1.5-2 times as long as the lamina. Corolla narrowly to very narrowly cylindrical, 3.1-3.9 mm long; lobes erect or inflexed. Anthers apically truncate and slightly notched or sometimes widely rounded. Cypselas narrowly oblong, 1.8-2.4 mm long, without an annular ridge, with three to five conspicuous and unevenly distributed ribs, brown. Pappus bristles with a slightly serrate and narrow shaft, apically subterete and obtuse or ± flat and rarely acute in outline.