Forming a rosette around the flower head are elliptic to linear shaped bracts, or phyllaries, resembling the look of ray florets.

The originally described variety, somalense, is mostly confined to the low nutrient, peaty soils of buttongrass plains, occasionally creeping into sub-alpine areas.

[3] The variety described by A.M Buchanan, spathulatum, is more confined to the mountainous alpine areas of the West and Southwest, growing in shallow, skeletal soils.

[3] Along with various other seeds and flowers of low moorland or sedge-land plains, Helichrysum pumilum is an important food source for the critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot.

This small, migratory parrot feasts on the flowers of H. pumilum towards the end of their breeding season, between late summer and early autumn.