An evergreen shrub or small tree of rounded form 6 to 20 ft high; young shoots clothed with glandular down, viscid, stout. Leaves stalkless, narrowly oblong or narrowly obovate, pointed or blunt at the apex, tapered towards the base, entire, 2 to 41⁄2 in. long, 3⁄4 to 1 in. wide, downy above, felted beneath when young, becoming almost glabrous above with age and thinly rusty-downy beneath. Flower-heads very numerous and densely produced in terminal, rounded, or pyramidal panicles 3 to 5 in. wide. Each flower-head is 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide, with fifteen to twenty yellow ray-florets; flower-stalks slender, glandular-hairy.
Native of the Chatham Islands, where it is described as forming a small tree handsome in its pale shining green leaves and bright yellow, copious blossoms. It is also of distinct appearance, with leaves rather resembling those of a shrubby spurge in their shape and close arrangement at the end of the branches. It is unfortunately not hardy in most parts of the country, but succeeds on the southern and western seaboards. It is at Monreith in Wigtownshire, where it commences to flower in June. Major A. A. Dorrien-Smith collected plants in the Chatham Islands in December 1909, when it was just coming into blossom.
S. huntii × S. Dunedin Hybrids – A garden hybrid, similar in appearance to S. huntti but with grey-green foliage, the leaves being grey-cottony above and densely grey- or white-felted beneath. Not known for certain to be in cultivation in the British Isles.