Schistostephium flabelliforme Less.

Erect woody perennial herb to shrub, up to c. 1 m tall, usually laxly branching, stem striate, usually densely pubescent but occasionally glabrous at base. Leaves alternate, distinctly petiolate, petiole densely pubescent, hairs obscuring petiole surface, petiole at point of attachment with lamina 0.5-1.0 mm wide, petiole at base 1.5-2.5 mm wide, lamina flabellate to rarely elliptic, usually wider than long, 6-14 mm long, 9-24 mm wide densely pubescent above and below, upper lamina surface obscured by pubescence such that upper lamina appears silvery green-grey, hairs above adpressed, lying parallel c. 30° from venation, hairs below less dense, usually obscuring lower lamina, margins coarsely to finely serrate, sometimes shallowly dissected into lobes, each lobe or tooth apex hardened, leaf base cuneate to truncate, leaf venation prominently raised below, spreading pubescent. Inflorescences of numerous clustered capitula, capitula pedicellate, pedicel 2-10 mm long, pubescent with appressed and spreading hairs, hairs drying yellow; occasionally with one or two separate alternate bracts c. 1 mm long, abaxially densely pubescent. Capitula disciform, heterogamous; involucre broadly and shallowly campanulate, 1.5-4.5 mm diam.; phyllaries 10-20, multiseriate, 1.5-2 mm long, 0.4-1 mm wide, often with a hyaline apex, phyllaries often abaxially pubescent with spreading hairs drying yellow; receptacle irregularly shaped, 0.75-1.2 mm diam. Hermaphrodite florets 10-18, corollas yellow and 4-lobed, lobes c. 0.4 mm long, acute, tube 1.2-1.6 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm diam.; distinction between tube and throat not conspicuous; anthers drying white, apical anther appendages acute or rounded; basal anther appendages very short and triangular, anther collars inconspicuous and not coloured. Achenes of hermaphrodite florets immature. Female florets 0-5, very similar to hermaphrodite florets, but with indistinct corolla lobes and a stalked achene, corollas 0.9 mm long. Mature achenes of female florets flattened, 1.5-2 mm long, c. 0.8 mm wide with narrow pale wings, stalk 0.3-0.5 mm long, usually glandular, setulae dense; pappus absent.