Micro- or coarsely polyphyllidious, mostly virgate subshrubs from xylopodium or oblique woody, fire- resistent rootstock, the stiff, simple or distally few- branched stems commonly (1.5-)2-14(-20) dm and dying back annually to the ground, but sometimes persistent and fruticose or even subarborescent (reportedly attaining 4 m), at anthesis only distally foliate, the dense, sometimes umbelliform capitula of large, externally white- or bronze-silky-barbate fls borne generally at 1—4 furthest lf-axils, either directly or on condensed brachyblasts of few efoliate internodes, on  peduncle varying from almost 0 to 5.5 cm, the tassel of filaments either blood-red or pink-and-white; vesture variable in composition, density, and distribution on the plant, that of young stems and all lf-axes usually composed of longer straight, spreading-ascending needle-like hairs to 0.8-2.1 mm and shorter, incurved or partly uncinate ones mixed or not with reddish- granular trichomes, the long-ciliate or minutely ciliolate lfts bicolored, the ± lustrous upper face of leaden hue, varying from glabrous to papillate (and then sometimes microscopically hirtellous), the lower face cinnamon-brown, dull, either appressed-pilose or glabrous; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules of primary (laminate) lvs erect, symmetrically or asymmetrically lanceolate, lance-attenuate, or lance-ovate, mostly 6-18 mm, rarely 2-6 mm long, at base (1-) 1.3-4 mm wide, striately nerved, dorsally pubescent or glabrate in age, becoming dry papery and persistent (but ultimately fragile), the bracteiform (elaminate) stipules of short-shoots, when present, sometimes shorter and wider, commonly glabrate. Lf-formula iii-xi(-xii)/ (16—)18—35(—38); lf-stks (2.5-)4.5-10.5(-15.5) cm, the obscurely pulvinate petiole 0.5-2.5(-3) cm, the longer interpinnal segments (0.5-)0.8-2.1(-2.6) cm, the ventral groove bridged at insertion of pinnae; rachis of longer pinnae (4.5-)5-14 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (1.4-)2-6 mm; lfts subequilong except at each end of rachis, subsessile in a shallowly dilated socket, the cross-wrinkled pulvinule (0.2-) 0.3-0.8 mm, the blades oblong or lance-oblong or narrowly ovate from shallowly semicordate, obliquely truncate, or bluntly auriculate base, those near mid-rachis commonly 7—18(—21) x (1.8-)2-6.5(-7) mm, but in var. turbinata 3.5-8 x 0.8-1.8 mm, in any case 2.2-4.3(-5) times as long as wide; venation palmate, the straight or distally incurved midrib displaced to divide blade l:2-3.4, the inner posterior primary nerve incurved-ascending to or far beyond mid-blade, the outer posterior one(s) much shorter, the whole venation either immersed or raised on ventral face, sharply prominulous beneath. Peduncles often almost 0, or the lowest, or all, raised on stout, bracteate, white-pilosulous peduncle up to 1.5-5.5 cm; bract sessile, broadly deltate-ovate or semiorbicular 3-7.5 mm, in texture, venation and external pubescence resembling the stipules; floral receptacle claviform or subspherical 2.5-4 mm diam; bract of peripheral fls lanceolate or elliptic-obovate or obovate-truncate 3-5.5 mm, deciduous, that of inner fls wanting; capitula prior to anthesis forming a hairy ball, becoming at anthesis 2-3.5 cm diam (without filaments), the (7-)8-14 fls contiguous, either subsessile or contracted at base into a solid pedicel 0.8-5.2 mm, all homomorphic or the innermost broader (but not longer) than outer ones and these often staminate; perianth firm, externally densely silky-pilose overall or proximally glabrescent, brown glabrous within, normally 5-merous (random exceptions); calyx either broadly or narrowly turbinate, disregarding vesture 4—7.5(-8) mm, the (often unequal) lobes usually depressed-deltate or semicircular 0.4-3 mm, or the orifice merely undulate; corolla (8.5-)10-14(-15) mm, the spreading- ascending lance-ovate lobes (2.6-)4—6.5 mm at anthesis, sometimes more deeply split in age; androecium (44-)52-92(-106)-merous, 3.3-5.7(-6.5) cm, the stemonozone (1.4—) 1.6-4 mm, comeously thickened internally, the tube 3-6.5 mm, intrastminal nectary 0; ovary subsessile, at anthesis varying from papillate- puberulent to white-tomentulose either overall or beyond middle. Pods 1-3 per capitulum, erect, in profile oblanceolate 7-13 x 1.1-1.6 cm, 3-7-seeded, the massive sutural frame and the recessed ligneous valves alike densely white-, gray-, or yellowish-tomentose; seeds in broad profile 9-13 x 5.5-9 mm, the hard brittle testa smooth, dull-ochraceous, the narrowly U- shaped pleurogram ±7-9 mm.

A polymorphic species of wide dispersal over the Brazilian Planalto, in campo cerrado and campo ru- pestre upward of 500 m, extending from extreme s. Piauí s. to extreme n. Paraná, w. just into Paraguay, the range more exactly described under each variety.

The foregoing description of C. dysantha records the presently known macromorphological variation in a complex species that includes not only the original C. dysantha as conceived by Bentham but also his species abbreviata, macrocephala, and turbinata, and furthermore several minor variants that were not yet known in 1875-1876. Bentham’s four major species were placed close together in a subordinate group within ser. Nitidae, within which they were separated by combinations of three characters: number of pinnae per leaf; length of peduncles, and mutual proportions of calyx and corolla. These formulae are no longer applicable to much of the material that has accumulated in herbaria subsequently.

The commonest, most widely dispersed, and consequently best known member of this group, C. dysantha sens. str., was defined by 4-6 pairs of pinnae, subsessile capitula, and corolla more than twice as long as calyx. Copious collections from the relatively restricted territory of the Brazilian Distrito Federal now show pinnae in three to seven, even nine pairs, peduncles indeed often obsolete or almost so but the first of each stem not seldom developed (to 1.5, exceptionally  2 cm), and calyx often half or more than half as long as corolla. The free filaments are constantly blood-red.