Metalasia seriphiifolia Dc.

Erect shrublet, slender, sparingly to much-branched, up to 0.4 m high. Branches erect, young sparsely whitish-tomentose, older becoming glabrous or nearly so, with distinct to indistinct leaf-scars. Foliage dense. Leaves spreading to erect-spreading, straight, with axillary brachyblasts about half as long as the subtending leaf, much to highly involute, acicular, carinate, rarely slightly concave, linear or sometimes linear-oblanceolate, 2.0-10(-15) x 0.3-0.4(-0.7) mm, acute, twisted about once or twice, sparsely or sometimes densely pubescent, with a distinct midvein at least towards the base. Synflorescenses 0.5-22 mm wide, dense and conspicuously branched, with (4-)10 to numerous capitula arranged in few to 15 ± branched sometimes obscurely branched clusters, each containing few to 15 capitula; a few individually arranged capitula also sometimes present. Peduncles (0-)2-5 mm long. Capitula 3-flowered, sessile or with pedicels 1-2 mm long, free from one another or sometimes slightly fused by hairs at the base, lower half of each capitulum hairy. Involucre narrowly obtriangular, apically 1-1.5 mm wide, sometimes up to 2 mm wide at anthesis. Involucral bracts in 5-6 series, gradually longer inwards, outermost about half as long as the innermost, outermost subfoliaceous to subpetaloid, those inwards petaloid, outermost lanceolate, those inwards narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, innermost with narrow hyaline margins and apically tridentate (the teeth about equal) with a transverse ridge subapically, outermost acute, those inwards rounded to truncate, all except outermost apiculate, all apically erect, inner and innermost sometimes ± 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 rarely reddish above the stereome but otherwise pink to whitish, innermost with a stereome about 1.5-2 times as long as the lamina. Corolla narrowly cylindrical, sometimes slightly widened above, 2.6-2.8 mm long; lobes erect. Anthers apically rounded. Cypselas narrowly oblong, 1.5-1.9 mm long, with an indistinct annular ridge, with inconspicuous ridges dorsally, brown. Pappus bristles with a serrate and narrow shaft, apically flattened or often ± flat and entire or sometimes slightly serrate to slightly dentate, sometimes thickened towards the very apex, usually acute.