Caespitose herb up to 5 cm tall. Leaves rosulate, oblanceolate to elliptic, with an inconspicuous mid-rib, keeled, 10-20 × 2-5 mm; apex obtuse to acute; margins glabrous or sometimes sparingly hairy. Capitula 2—6, corymbosely arranged, on a branched, sparsely pubescent, fewleaved stem, pedunculate; peduncle elongated in fruit; bracts dimorphic, the lower leaf-like, the upper phyllary-like. Phyllaries 9-13,3.0-3.5 mm long, narrowly oblong, obtuse-acute, with 1—3 translucent ducts. Outer florets 9—13, tubular or narrowly cyathiform, 3^4-lobed, female, white, c. 1 mm long; vascular tissue absent. Central florets 3—5, campanulate, 4-lobed, functionally male, white, 1.2— 1.7 mm long; vascular tissue central in corolla lobes; anthers 0.7—0.8 mm long. Cypsela ellipsoid, distinctly ribbed, minutely papillose, 2.0—2.5 mm long, with a small carpopodium and beaked apex.
[Reproduced from Swenson (1996, New Zealand J. Bot. 34: 47-50) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]