Aciphylla congesta

Detailed description

Tufted herb forming clumps to 30 cm diam. Rosettes multiple. Leaves many, soft, striate, 1-pinnate; sheath thin, with hyaline margin, to 60 mm long, tapering from 20 mm to 7 mm wide; stipules usually 65 × 5 mm wide, linear-oblong, abruptly narrowing to acicular tip; petioles to 80 mm long, flat, sometimes vestigial; internodes (inter-pinna spacing) to 10 mm long; primary pinnae in 2-3 pairs, laminae of pinna usually 60 × 5 mm, abruptly narrowing to pungent apex. Male flowering stem stout, 300 × 15 mm wide; lower bract sheaths broad, to 25 × 15 mm tapering to long pungent tips; lower bract lamina and stipules leaf-like. Umbels 6-12, crowded, forming a globose head approximately 120 mm diameter; primary rays stout, about 40 mm long, roughly whorled, subtended by whorl of bracts; umbellules several, crowded, to 20 mm diameter, on slender rays about 5 mm long. Female flowering stem similar, forming a globose head to 150 mm diameter; primary rays grooved, generally 60 x 3 mm; involucral bracts whorled; bract sheath 10 × 7 mm, submembranous; bract stipules and lamina to 40 mm long; umbellules to 30 mm diameter, rays many, crowded. Fruit of two mericarps; mericarps narrowly elliptic to elliptic, 4.0-5.2 mm, with (3-4-)5 even narrowly winged ribs, 4 low indistinct ribs on vittae, vittae largely obscured.