Launaea lanifera Pau, it is a cushion forming, spinescent rosette shrublet up to c. 40 cm high, with a strong taproot and a shortly branched, woody caudex carrying several, closely neighbouring leaf rosettes; axils of the former and present rosette leaves with a persisting white-lanate indumentum; rosette shoots terminated each by a spinescent, from base on intricately and divaricately branched, lignified, leafless synflorescence intermingled with the others and thus together constituting a persistent, spiny cushion; innovations from the axils of rosette leaves protected by the spiny cushion and later overtopping it with their synflorescences. Rosette leaves obovate to broadly spathulate in young stage of rosette, later? narrowly spathulate in outline, (3)5-20 x 0.3-2 cm, with + acute apex, long-attenuate towards base, + denticulate and sinuate-dentate to pinnatifid with triangular-acute segments, lamina dark green on upper and paler green on lower surface, leaf base semiamplexicaule, persistent; above the often somewhat prolonged rosette, leaves immediately reduced to inconspicuous ovate-acute bracts. Synflorescence of a rosette shoot basally monopodially and higher up monochasially branched; branches in their majority enclosing an angle of 50-80; monochasial flowering branches characteristically? zick-zack. Peduncles, being the terminal segments of a synflorescence branch, slender, subulate, lignified, spreading-erect, or arched erect in case of longer peduncles, 0.5-3(5) cm long, with one or a few bracts immediately below the capitulum and passing over into the outer involucral bracts, on longer peduncles with one or few additional bracts further down; peduncles remaining as spines after shedding of the capitula. Capitula with 15-24 flowers. Receptacle at fruiting time 2-3 mm in diameter. Involucre 11-16 mm long, towards fruiting time slender-cylindrical, at time of fruit dispersal involucral bracts star-wise outspread and their midrib in lower half swollen and hardened; outer involucral bracts imbricate, with distinct, broad scarious margin, the outermost ovate-acute to narrowly triangular, mostly twice as long as wide, 1.5-2.5 mm long, the following bracts gradually longer and lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, the innermost 1/3 to 1/2 as long as the inner involucral bracts; inner involucral bracts 8, in one row, with a scarious margin almost as broad as in the outer involucral bracts, linear-lanceolate, ? equal, 11-15 x 2-3 mm. with a bright yellow ligule of 10-13 x 2.2-2.8 mm and a tube 5.5-7 mm long; anther tube without appendages 3.6-4.0 mm long, apical appendages 0.4-0.6 mm, basal appendages 0.4-0.6 mm long; style branches 2.6-3.2 mm long, with yellow sweeping hairs. Achenes (3.2)4.4-6.2 x 0.7-0.9 mm, heteromorphic, inner columnar, prismatic, with 4 main ribs each accompanied by 2 indistinct secondary ribs, smooth to slightly transversally wrinkled with roundish wrinkles, pale; marginal with 5 main ribs each accompanied by 2 + distinct secondary ribs.
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