Erect annual or perennial herb to 1.5 m high, stems covered in woolly hairs. Leaves cauline, lamina to 5 cm long and wide, pubescent with stellate hairs, upper surface green, lower surface cream to dirty grey, pinnately lobed, lobes linear to narrow lanceolate, acute or obtuse; petiole 8–50 mm long, same colour and hairiness as lamina. Scape erect, to 10 cm in fruit, stout, woolly-hairy; inflorescence terminal, 2–8 cm diam.; involucral bracts 10–20, spreading, lanceolate, 2–4 cm long, both surfaces covered in stellate hairs, cream, tipped green. Flowers numerous, outer row male, inner flowers bisexual; sepals c. 1 mm long; petals absent. Fruit obovate, 3–5 mm long, brown, villous, sepals persistent Flowers throughout year
GipP. Also Qld, NSW, ACT. Naturalised in sandy heathland in the Frankston-Cranbourne areas, probably an escape from cut-flower market gardens. In New South Wales, this is a characteristic native species of sandstone heathlands.
