Citation: F. Muell., Fragm. Phyt. Aust. 2:155 ( 1861 ).

Derivation: Greek akantha, thorn; kladion, diminutive of klados, a branch; because the branchlets end in a spine.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Rigid spinescent shrub with matted white woolly vestiture; leaves alternate, sessile, entire.

Capitula solitary, sessile or shortly pedunculate, either axillary or lateral to the upper spiny branchlets, homogamous or heterogamous, discoid; involucre cylindrical at first, becoming turbinate, 4-6-seriate, soft and spreading in fruit; bracts graded in length, the outer ones shorter, all scarious; receptacle slightly convex, naked; florets numerous, all bisexual and fertile or a few outer ones female; corolla cylindrical, slightly dilated towards the 5-lobed limb, slightly exceeding the involucre, glabrous; anthers with short narrow tails at the base: style branches linear, semiterete, with truncate papillose apices.

Achenes oblong, not beaked, minutely papillose; pappus 2-seriate, of numerous septate bristles entire for most of their length but barbellate towards the apex and connate for 1-2 mm in a single basal ring.

Distribution:  Monotypic; endemic to Australia.

Biology: No text

Author: Prepared by L. Haegi