Mimetes argenteus Knight

An erect shrub of open growth habit, usually to 2 m, occasionally up to 3.5 m, with a single main trunk up to 80 mm in diam.; branched near base; bark thin, smooth, grey. Branches erect, rather sparsely branched, 6-10 mm in diam., densely velutinous initially, tending to glabrescent later. Leaves elliptic to broadly elliptic, held at right angles to branches, 40-65 mm long, 18-36 mm wide, densely silvery-sericeous, margins sericeously ciliate; entire, apices acute, terminating in a single apical callosity, very rarely tridentate. Inflorescence broadly cylindric, 80-150 mm long, 100-120 mm wide, not clearly differentiated from flowering shoot at anthesis, the terminal leaves reduced, oblong, silvery-pink, forming an erect to suberect coma. Capitula 6-9-flowered, subtending leaf flat, held at right angles to stem, flushed deep carmine to pale mauve at base but otherwise undifferentiated. Involucral bracts ovate-obtuse, 7-15 mm long, 5-8 mm wide, tightly clasping perianths, cartilaginous, becoming woody in fruiting stage, outer surface puberulous but margins minutely ciliate, carmine in live state; inner series narrowly oblong, 10-12 mm long, 2 mm wide, very densely sericeous. Floral bracts linear-oblong, acute, 8-10 mm long, 1 mm wide, very densely sericeous. Perianth 25-30 mm long; tube glabrous, slightly inflated; claws filiform, densely adpressed sericeous; limbs linear-acute, 10 mm long, sparsely sericeous. Style straight, filiform, 40-45 mm long. Pollen presenter linear-acute, 7-8 mm long, slightly geniculate at junction with style, stigmatic groove terminal. Ovary ovoid-puberulous, 2 mm long. Hypogynous scales linear-subulate, 2-3 mm long. Fruits ovoid 7-8 mm long, 5 mm wide. Flowering takes place between March and June. During flowering and especially for a few months thereafter, the inflorescence leaves subtending each axillary capitulum, became suffused with pinkish-mauve to carmine pigments, especially in their axils, creating a most arresting effect.