Description
It has a highly variable habit, ranging from a very low, almost prostrate lignotuberous shrub in B. fraseri var. crebra and B. fraseri var. effusa, to an upright non-lignotuberous shrub up to six metre high in B. fraseri var. oxycedra. Young stems are covered in a mat of coarse hairs, but these are lost as the stems age. The leaves are from five to ten centimetres long, and eight to 40 millimetres wide; pinnatisect, with 4 to 18 narrow lobes on each side; on a petiole up to three centimetres long.
Flowers occur in the dome-shaped head characteristic of B. ser. Dryandra. These occur at the end of branches or on short laterals, and consist of from 80 to 100 individual densely packed together and surrounded by a short involucre of narrow, tapering bracts. The hairless tips of these bracts are quite prominent; this is a distinctive characteristic of this species. As in all Proteaceae, individual flowers consist of a tubular perianth made up of four united tepals fused with the anthers, and one long wiry pistil. The pistil end is initially trapped inside the upper perianth parts, but breaks free at anthesis. In B. fraseri, the perianth is 24–28 millimetres long, and pink to cream in colour; and the style 30–42 mm long and cream-coloured. The fruit is a woody follicle firmly embedded in the woody base of the flower head, and usually containing two winged seeds. In this species each head may set an unusually large number of follicles.
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