Mimetes hottentoticus E.Phillips & Hutch.

An erect shrub of variable growth habit ranging from slender and sparsely branched to rounded and well branched, 1.5-2 m, occasionally 3 m tall, up to 2 m in diam., with upright branches developing from a single stout main trunk up to 100 mm in diam. Branches 5-8 mm in diam., cinereously villous, lowermost branches glabrous, devoid of foliage. Leaves sessile, ascending to subimbricate, oval to broadly oval 50-75 mm long, 28-40 mm wide, very densely silvery-sericeous, margins villous, apices obtusely tridentate, only very occasionally entire. Inflorescence broadly cylindric, 70-140 mm long, 70-120 mm wide, topped by an erect coma of reduced oblong to narrowly oblong leaves, silvery but occasionally pink-flushed. Capitula 8-12-flowered, subtended by a flat undifferentiated leaf, remaining silvery during anthesis. Outer involucral bracts lanceolate-acuminate 15-22 mm long, 2-5 mm wide, cinereously villous; inner series becoming narrowly lanceolate-acuminate. Floral bracts linear-subulate, very densely villous, 12-16 mm long, 1 mm wide. Perianth 35-38 mm long; tube quadrangular, 4-5 mm long, glabrous; claws filiform, densely villous; limbs lanceolate-acute, 5-7 mm long, villous. Anthers sessile, oblong-obtuse, apical connective usually minutely bilobed. Style 65-70 mm long. Pollen presenter black, broadly obconic-capitate, with an acute apical papilla containing the stigmatic groove; quadrangularly grooved basally. Ovary 3-4 mm long, scarcely differentiated from style; minutely sericeous. Hypogynous scales linear-subulate, 2-3 mm long. Fruits a broadly ovoid achene 8 mm long. Flowering commences during the last week of January, reaching a peak in February, continuing into March.