Dense spreading shrub or small tree 1-3(–5) m high; bark papery; branchlets glabrescent. Leaves alternate, obovate to elliptic or narrow-obovate to narrow-elliptic, c. 1–3 cm long, 4–10 mm wide, flat, acute or obtuse with a blunt mucro, 3- or 5-veined, oil glands obscure, petiole c. 1 mm long. Inflorescence a dense terminal globoid or obloid head, to up c. 3 cm wide; axis shortly pubescent, growing on into a leafy shoot. Flowers in triads; stamens 7–10 per bundle, purple to mauve, claw 1–3.5 mm long, free part of filaments c. 6–9 mm long. Capsules 3–5 mm long, 5–7 mm wide, sepals somewhat persistent. Flowers Jul.–Mar.
VVP, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, HSF, OtR. Also naturalised in SA. Native to the south coast of Western Australia, widely cultivated, becoming naturalised in coastal areas near Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, and near Anglesea.
