the male flower head may be yellow or burgundy red, is cone- or egg-shaped, long, hardly about across, subtended by an involucre of several leaves of about long that are often covered in rusty-coloured soft hairs. the bract subtending the individual male flower is covered with long soft hairs, about long, oblong in shape and the tip almost pointed. the lower part of the 4-merous perianth of the male flower that remains merged upon opening called tube is long, somewhat compressed and covered with long soft hairs. the middle part that consists of four free segments ones the flower opens (called claws) are linear to spade-shaped, about long, and covered with long soft hairs. the higher part consists of four segments (called limbs) that are about long, elliptic with a somewhat blunt tip, and softly hairy, and are directly merged with the anthers without a filament, long, oblong in shape. the rudimentary style in the male flower is about long, thread-shaped, hairless with an egg-shaped stigma of long. at the base of the style are four line-shaped scales of long.