Phylica barbata Pillans

A dwarf, moderately branched shrub, rigid at base. Branchlets wiry, velvety pubescent and sparsely pilose. Leaves very crowded, subimbricate, 1-1.4 cm long; lamina ascending or erect-spreading, slightly incurved, linear, narrowed towards the apex, tipped with an acute callus, rounded at base, with closely revolute margins covering the lower surface; upper surface coarsely tubercled, at first pilose, becoming glabrous: petiole 1-2 mm long. Capitula solitary, 2-2.5 cm wide, hemisphaeric, surrounded by many rigidly ciliate leaves. Bracts about 1.5 cm long, acicular, amply pilose with spreading, grey hairs. Bracteoles 2, about half as long, filiform, plumose. Flowers pedicellate, 9-10 mm long. Pedicels 2-2.5 mm long, stout, with many, long, ascending hairs mostly geniculate at base. Calyx-tube 3 mm deep, urceolate; outer surface sparsely pilose, with 10 indistinct longitudinal ridges on the upper half; inner surface glabrous, with a small annulus at the base. Sepals 3.5-4.5 mm long, lanceolate, acuminate, clothed on the outer surface with many, long, spreading, white hairs mostly twisted or geniculate near the base; inner surface flattened in the lower half, prominently convex on the upper, bearded from about the middle down the margins. Petals absent. Stamens inserted on the lower half of the tube. Anthers reniform, 1-celled. Ovary ovate, sparsely pilose. Style about 1.5 mm long, slender. Stigma capitate, entire. Fruit about 6 mm long, rotundate, glabrous or sparsely pilose about the summit, surmounted by a small calyx-base.