Large shrub to 6-7 m high, mostly evergreen, deciduous in colder areas. Shoots ± quadrangular, creamy or yellowish tomentose. Lvs sessile or nearly so, 9-23 × 2-6 cm, lanceolate or narrow-ovate, rugose and glabrous above, cream or yellowish tomentose below, crenulate; base cuneate or subamplexicaul; apex acute to acuminate. Panicles of up to 10, globose, pedunculate heads; upper bracts linear or lanceolate. Peduncles tomentose, 2-30 mm long; heads 13-20 mm diam., composed of densely packed, sessile, fragrant orange fls. Calyx c. 2 mm long, tomentose; lobes shallow, ± triangular. Corolla tube c. 4 mm long, hairy outside; lobes 1-1.7 mm long, suborbicular to somewhat reniform, glabrous except near base outside, slightly imbricate. Stamens included, inserted c. 1/2 way along tube; anthers sessile. Style 2-3 mm long. Ovary tomentose. Capsule c. 5 mm long, obovoid or subglobose, hairy.