Phylica pubescens catches the eye already when stem-tips are not yet bearing flowers. The stem-tips bear silky leaves in mopheads, the flowerheads also surrounded by silky bracts.

The appeal of a plant may lie in any of the features of colour, structure, texture, fragrance or one of the many uses that people have found for them. In this case texture wins and colour comes second?

Pubescens is a Latin word meaning hairy; self-explanatory in this case (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; Mustart, et al, 1997; iNaturalist).