Shrub, very spiny-prickly, \u00b1 evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 1.5(2) m in height, upright, with well-defined trunk or, frequently, highly branched from the base then \u00b1 hemispheric in shape. Branches straight, strongly striated, with greenish-greyish bark. Leaves alternate, in 2 types: some are always solitary, longly linear, rigid, spinescent, entire or with 2 small spinescent lobes at the base, first green, then white when dry, persistent on the plant for several years; the other leaves are borne solitary or in axillary brachyblasts on which the new branchlets will be born, these leaves are longly oblong, acute or obtuse, attenuated at the base, \u00b1 soft, not rigid or spinescent, greenish-greyish on both sides, caducous, which they fall off when dry, hence they only appear on young branches. Inflorescence in solitary capitula, axillary and terminal, about 2-3 cm, narrowly ovoid, surrounded at the base by bracts very similar to the spinescent leaves, \u00b1 the same length as the capitulum; the other involucral bracts ovate-lanceolate, entire, without teeth as in the 2 previous species of the genus. Flowers tubular, regular, without ligules, very protruding above the bracts, yellow. Fruit a small obovoid-subtetragonal achene, with pappus of hairs violet to blackish, persistent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-13527","species","type-species","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n