Paranomus sceptrum-gustavianus (Sparrm.) Hylander

A stout branched shrub, 1-1.8 m high. Stems with soft short woolly hairs, glabrescent. Leaves glabrous, some entire, some dissected, the transition gradual, mostly entire on old plants. Entire leaves coriaceous with stout petioles, from 10-80 mm long, lamina rhomboidal or spathulate, cuneate at the base, the apiculum very obtuse. Dissected leaves from 65-120 mm long, divided in the upper three fifths, the segments channelled, the apiculum obtuse. Peduncle short or none, with a few linear or linear-lanceolate bracts covered with short brown woolly hairs. Spike from 45-70 mm long, the partial inflorescences crowded, the flowers pale cream-coloured with a heavy and somewhat unpleasant scent. Bracts subtending the partial inflorescences oval, softly hairy, the lowermost aristate, the length of the prolongation diminishing upwards, hairs on the prolongation brown, bristly. Floral bracts similar to the subtending bracts and about the same size, but without an awn, acute, brown at the tip, about one quarter the length of the mature bud. Perianth of the mature bud 16-22 mm long, slender, covered with rather stiff silvery adpressed hairs, the hairs projecting beyond the limb in all but the less hairy posticous segment. Style 14-15 mm long, slender, glabrous; pollen presenter a little over 2 mm long, dark excepting at the tip, fusiform, with a knee-like bend at the base.