Perennial herb, flowering stem up to 1 m tall, solitary, simple, leafy in the lower part, bracteate in the upper, stem, leaves and involucre thinly white woolly-cobwebby at first, wool persisting in wisps mainly in the leaf and bract axils and on the involucre. Leaves up to 50 x 2 cm, lanceolate, apex acuminate, base tapering to a petiole one third to half the total leaf length, expanded and half-clasping below, leathery, margins callose-crenulate, bracts linear-lanceolate, clasping. Heads radiate, few to many on long bracteate peduncles corymbosely arranged. Involucre campanulate, c. 15 x 20 mm, bracts c. 20, a little longer than the disc flowers, double-keeled, resinous, heavily calycled, the calyculus bracts appressed-ascending and descending 1-3 cm down the peduncle. Rays long, patent, purple, disc purple. Achenes not seen, ovaries glabrous.
Home