Subshrubs or annual herbs, to 0.6 m tall. Stems erect or ascending, bright green, simple or poorly branched at base, leafy throughout except at base, pubescent throughout, hairs simple, eglandular. Leaves opposite, rank-smelling; petiole 3-7 mm; blade ovate, 20-35 × 12-25 mm, pubescent below, hairs long, simple, eglandular along venation, stipitate glandular and gland-dotted between veins, base attenuate, margin coarsely serrate, apex acute. Synflorescence terminal, corymbose, capitula pedunculate; peduncles 4-7 mm, pubescent; involucre narrowly campanulate, 4-5 mm in diam.; phyllaries 2-or 3-seriate, with scattered short simple eglandular hairs at base, glabrous apically, margin ciliate, apex long attenuate; receptacle conical, epaleate. Florets 35-40; corollas bright lilac-blue, ca. 4.5 mm; corolla lobes long papillose on inner surface, usually glabrous outside or with few simple eglandular hairs; anther appendages longer than wide, apex acute; style base not swollen, glabrous, bright lilac-blue; style branches coarsely papillose. Achenes 2-2.5 mm, 3-5-ribbed, ribs pale, setuliferous or glabrous, body black, with scattered setulae; pappus setae 3.5-4.5 mm, coarsely barbellate, off-white. Fl. and fr. often year-round.
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Perennial 0.3–1.2 m high; stem herbaceous, erect, hirsute. Leaves malodorous, opposite; petiole 3–20 mm long; lamina ovate to rhomboid, 25–60 mm long, 10–40 mm wide, rounded, cuneate or shortly attenuate basally, coarsely serrate, acute, hirsute and gland-dotted on both sides especially abaxially. Inflorescence terminal, of many capitula in dense clusters. Capitula of 25–30 florets; peduncles hirsute, 2–10 mm long; involucre narrowly campanulate, 7–10 mm long; bracts in 4 or 5 series, yellowish with 3–5 green veins, distally purplish, glabrous to distally appressed-strigose; outer bracts smallest, lanceolate, acuminate; inner bracts linear, acute. Corolla 3.5–4.8 mm long, shortly (4 or) 5-dentate; tube white, purplish blue or lilac at tip (as are style branches). Achenes 2–3 mm long, black, hispidulous. Pappus bristles 15–40, white to golden.
An abundant weed of disturbed roadsides, stream banks, pastures and cultivation; also found in relatively undisturbed Eucalyptus woodland and on the margins of rainforest and vine thickets, in a wide range of soils, at altitudes of 0–1040 m.
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