Shrub 0.5–1.5 m high; stems glabrous; nodes prominent. Leaves opposite, shortly petiolate, narrowly elliptic or linear, 5–20 mm long, 1–5 mm wide, concolorous, usually mid green, glabrous. Inflorescence terminal, a many-flowered head; involucral bracts 4, sessile, ovate or broadly ovate, 5–13 mm long, 3–9 mm wide, glabrous outside, covered with long, soft hairs inside, margins sometimes fringed, medium green and often partly yellowish or reddish. Flowers bisexual, antrorse-hairy outside, glabrous inside, creamy white to yellow, or rarely, pink; floral tube 7–12 mm long, ovary-portion with long deciduous hairs, style-portion longer than ovary-portion, with shorter persistent hairs, circumscissile above ovary; sepals spreading, 2–4 mm long, glabrous inside; pedicel hairy; stamens almost sessile in throat of floral tube; anthers opening towards centre of flower; style not or scarcely exserted. Fruit dry, enclosed. Flowers mainly Aug.–Nov.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, OtP, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, HNF. Also SA, NSW. Grows on sandy soil, mainly in mallee scrub and open-woodland, but with scattered occurrences to the Brisbane Ranges and Beechworth.