Metalasia pulcherrima Less.

Erect mostly much-branched shrub, up to 1.5 m high. Branches erect, young whitish-tomentose, older becoming less tomentose to glabrous, with distinct leaf-scars. Foliage dense. Leaves erect-spreading to erect, often slightly curved inwards with reflexive tips, occasionally with small axillary brachyblasts, involute to much involute, usually concave, narrowly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, sometimes narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, 1.9-15 x 0.5-2.3 mm, acute to shortly acuminate, sometimes carinate, non-twisted, often glabrous or sometimes sparsely pubescent, at least towards the base, with a distinct midvein. Synflorescenses 10-40 mm wide, dense and distinctly branched, with 5 or often numerous capitula arranged in 5-15 branched clusters, each containing few to 5 capitula; a few individually arranged capitula also sometimes present. Peduncles 2-8 mm long. Capitula 5(-6)-flowered, sessile or with pedicels up to 4 mm long, free from one another, lower 2/3 of each capitulum hairy. Involucre narrowly cyathiform but slightly widened towards the apex, apically 2-3 mm wide, becoming narrowly campanulate and up to 4 mm wide at anthesis. Involucral bracts in 5-7 series, gradually longer inwards, outermost about 1/2-3/4 as long as the innermost, outermost subfoliaceous and scarious above to entirely scarious, those inwards more scarious or mostly petaloid, outermost subulate-lanceolate to lanceolate, those inwards narrowly oblanceolate to oblong, inner and innermost sometimes with narrow and inconspicuous hyaline margins and usually indistinctly transparent above the stereome, outermost very acute, those inwards less acute, all apically often erect-spreading but innermost sometimes erect, all except outermost distinctly carinate and sometimes plicate, outermost with interlocking hairs reaching to about the middle of the bract, those inwards less hairy to glabrous, outermost brownish and sometimes reddish above the stereome, those inwards gradually more white, or, outermost brownish to brownish-yellow, those inwards gradually more yellow, innermost with a stereome about 1-1.8 times as long as the lamina. Corolla narrowly cylindrical 3.6-4.7 mm long, with an inconspicuous rigid resiniferous base, reddish or yellowish above; lobes erect. Anthers apically rounded. Cypselas narrowly oblong to oblong-ovoid, 1.8-3.0 mm long, often with two lateral and one medial pericarpous ribs, with an inconspicuous annular ridge, often with short and acute papillae, dark brown. Pappus bristles with a serrate and narrow shaft, apically flattened and acutely serrate, subterete and almost entire towards the very apex, acute, occasionally obtuse, white or yellowish.