Erect shrub to c. 1 m high; branches white-pubescent. Leaves crowded, widely spreading, linear to linear-oblanceolate, 7–30 mm long, 0.7–1.5 mm wide, rarely wider, distally upturned, dull green, glabrescent; apex acute, aristate. Inflorescence a terminal or upper-axillary corymbose panicle, mostly 1–4 cm across; common peduncles ascending, 4–20 cm long, longer than branches of inflorescence; flowers in short, dense, pedunculate spikes, each flower sessile, subtended by a blue-grey, persistent bract c 3 mm long; perianth tubular at base, splitting c. two-thirds of the way up; tepals 5–7 mm long, white, blue-grey or purplish, densely hairy; ovary comose at apex, also ringed by basal hairs. Nut 2–3 mm long, hairy. Flowers mostly Sep.–Dec.