Oedera speciosa (Dc.) N.G.Bergh

A sparsely branched, up to c. 1 m high shrub. Stems long and slender, ascending-erect, tomentose, leafy, becoming glabrous and nude and marked with leaf-scars. Leaves alternate, spreading or often squarrose-recurved, usually somewhat canaliculate and bent backwards (recurved), but sometimes more irregularly bent, hard and rigid, distinctly 5-9-nerved, narrowly-widely elliptic, 8-35 mm long, 3-10 mm wide, glabrous but with sparsely pilose margins, acute-acuminate, pungent. Capitula solitary, sessile, terminal. Involucre widely campanulate, 12-30 mm wide. Involucral bracts 50-90, outer widely ovate, inner gradually longer with an oblong basal part and an ovate, spreading apical limb, innermost narrowly obovate-oblong, also with a narrowly oblong basal part and a narrowly elliptic, spreading apical limb, entire or apically slightly crenulate or sometimes laciniate, up to 20 mm long, up to 6 mm wide, acute-obtuse. Receptacle flat-convex, paleate. Paleae carinate, linear-subulate, entire or apically slightly laciniate, 7-12 mm long, 0.5-1.2 mm wide, acute-acuminate, persistent. Ray-florets 25-45. Tube somewhat triquetrous, 3-6 mm long, with mainly laterally and dorsally ± laxly scattered, subulate-triangular hairs. Lamina narrowly elliptic-oblong or lorate, 15-25 mm long, 1.5-4.8 mm wide, yellow but dorsally brownish purple, 4-10-veined. Style 6-7.5 mm long; style-branches 1.8-3.2 mm long, glabrous or apically very minutely pilose-penicillate. Achenes triquetrous, oblong, 2.8-4.2 mm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, shortly hispid-pilose with longer hairs on lateral ribs, ribs and ends yellowish brown, centre brown; pappus as in disc-florets. Disc-florets 175-250, perfect. Corolla narrowly cylindrical-funnel-shaped, indistinctly divided into tube and limb, 6-8 mm long, 0.7-1 mm wide, glabrous or with a few short hairs in the middle; corolla lobes 0.5-1 mm long, dorsally occasionally gland-dotted. Style 6.5-8 mm long; style-branches 1-2.3 mm long, apically minutely pilose-penicillate and rounded-truncate; stylopodium ± distinct. Anthers 3.6-5 mm long; tails entire or branched, c. 1/3 of the length of the anther. Achenes flattened, oblong, 2.8-4 mm long, 0.5-0.8 mm wide, glabrous or shortly hispid-pilose (always less than in ray-florets), lateral ribs and ends yellowish brown, centre brown; pappus crownlike, of ± connate scales, up to 1.6 mm long.