The flowerhead of Athrixia elata grows solitary at branch tips. It has narrowly elliptic, faintly pleated ray flowers with dark tips. The disc flowers are yellow and five-lobed with a pattern of dark centres across the disc.

Seen from the side as in this photo, the scattered involucral bracts with long pointed bristly tips are dark among the dense woolly hairs on the cylindrical involucre. The receptacle is without scales.

Blooming normally happens in spring and summer. This specimen was photographed in the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve at the beginning of August (Van Wyk and Gericke, 2000; Van Wyk and Malan, 1997).