Mimetes hirtus (L.) Knight

An erect well-branched shrub 1-2.5 m in height with a single main trunk up to 75 mm in diam.; bark smooth and reddish. Branches stiffly upright, very densely villous to lanate initially but soon becoming glabrous, 5-8 mm in diam. Leaves ascending imbricate, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, entire, 25-45 mm long, 5-18 mm wide, apex acute with a single callus point; softly and sparsely villous at first, margins villously ciliate, later becoming glabrous. Inflorescence broadly cylindric, 80-140 mm long, 80-90 mm wide, topped by a flattened coma of reduced pink-flushed leaves. Capitula 9-14-flowered, subtended by a flat green undifferentiated foliage leaf. Outer involucral bracts lanceolate-acuminate, 15-40 mm long, 5-12 mm wide, papyraceous, clasping the perianths, occasionally sparsely sericeous but usually glabrous; apical margins sericeously ciliate; inner involucral bracts narrowly lanceolate-acuminate, subfalcately curved, thinly papyraceous, 20-40 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, margins sparsely sericeous. Floral bracts linear-subulate, 5-8 mm long, 1 mm wide, glabrous but margins minutely ciliate. Perianth 30-40 mm long, straight; tube quadrangularly inflated, glabrous, 5 mm long; claws filiform, sparsely puberulous proximally becoming sericeous distally; limbs linear-cymbiform, acute, scarcely differentiated from claws, sericeous. Anthers sessile. Style 50-55 mm long, slightly abaxially curved. Pollen presenter 4 mm long, linear-subulate terminally with a terminal stigmatic groove, prominently annulate proximally at junction with style. Ovary ovoid, minutely puberulous, 2 mm long. Hypogynous scales oblong, obtuse, carnose, 2 mm long. Fruits cylindric-oblong, 6-7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide. Mimetes hirtus is a winter-blooming species which reaches the peak of its flowering period in July and August, although occasionally early flowering specimens can be found in May and June, while late flowering often persists well into November.