Metalasia lichtensteinii Less.

Robust shrub, sparingly to much-branched, up to 1.5 m high. Branches erect, young densely whitish-tomentose, older becoming less tomentose to glabrous, with distinct leaf-scars. Foliage usually very dense. Leaves spreading to erect-spreading, straight, with axillary brachyblasts often more than half as long as the subtending leaf, involute to much involute, narrowly oblanceolate or sometimes narrowly obovate or narrowly lanceolate, 4.1-15 x 0.7-2.0 mm, acute, carinate half-twisted or twisted about once, slightly pubescent to glabrous, with a conspicuous midvein. Synflorescenses 10-50 mm wide, dense and conspicuously branched, umbraculiform or sometimes almost spheroid, with 10 to numerous capitula arranged in 10-20 slightly or sometimes distinctly branched clusters, each containing few to 10 capitula; several (rarely only), individually arranged capitula also present. Peduncles 2-15 mm long. Capitula 8-13-flowered, sessile or with pedicels up to 8 mm long, free from one another, lower 2/3 of each capitulum hairy. Involucre narrowly oblong-urceolate to cyathiform, apically 4-8 mm wide. Involucral bracts in 5-7 series, slightly longer inwards, outermost about 2/3-5/6 as long as the innermost, outermost foliaceous to sub-foliaceous, those inwards scarious or mostly petaloid, outermost subulate-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, those inwards narrowly ovate to oblanceolate or sometimes narrowly oblanceolate, inner and innermost sometimes with narrow hyaline margins, outer and inner ± distinctly transparent above the stereome, outermost very acute, those inwards less acute, outermost apically erect to appressed, those inwards revolute to erect-spreading, inner and innermost slightly apiculate and sometimes carinate towards the very apex, outermost with interlocking hairs reaching above the middle of the bract, those inwards less hairy to glabrous, outermost brownish to reddish to pinkish, those inwards usually reddish above the stereome but otherwise white, innermost with a stereome about 1-1.6 times as long as the lamina. Corolla narrowly cylindrical, 4.4-4.6 mm long, sometimes with a conspicuous rigid resiniferous base; lobes erect. Anthers apically rounded. Cypselas oblong to spheroid, 2.5-3.1 mm long, with an indistinct annular ridge, dark brown. Pappus bristles with a serrate and narrow to broad shaft, apically flattened to ± flat and slightly serrate to almost entire, thickened or often subterete towards the very apex, acute or often obtuse.