Pimelea aridula subsp. aridula

Detailed description

A robust, upright, stiff-stemmed shrub, up to 1 m tall. Long-stemmed plants may be fastigiate; short-stemmed plants often have more divergent branches. Branching mainly sympodial. Main stems stiff or flexible. Young branchlets brown, moderately to densely covered with long hair; internodes 0.5-2.0 mm; old stems at the base may be stout (= 10 mm diameter), grey-brown, glabrous. Node buttresses lunate, brown, hairy, often masked by hairs on young stems, moderately conspicuous on leafless stems. Leaves usually decussate, on short, red petioles (0.5 mm), rarely alternate on some young branchlets, ascending, loosely imbricate. Lamina 8-12 × 2-3 mm, medium green, slightly adaxially concave, narrow-ovate, acute, base cuneate, both surfaces often densely covered by long, fine hispid, appressed dull to shining white or yellowish, usually penicillate hairs. Stomata on both leaf surfaces. Inflorescences terminal, 5-10-flowered, sometimes in small clusters. Involucral bracts similar in size to adjacent leaves or slightly wider (8.0-10 × 3.2 mm), partly hiding the flowers. Receptacle densely hairy. Plants gynodioecious. Flowers white, on short pedicels (0.5 mm), tube densely hairy outside, sparsely so inside. Female tube 3.5 mm long, ovary portion 2 mm, calyx lobes 1.5 × 0.6 mm; hermaphrodite tube 6.5 mm long, ovary portion 2.5 mm, calyx lobes 2.5 × 1.5 mm. Anther dehiscence introrse. Ovary hairy from summit to two thirds of the way down. Fruits ovoid, dry, brown, 4.0 × 2.3 mm. Seeds ovoid 4.0 × 2.1 mm.