Without a view of the involucre it's unfortunately not possible to tell which it is.
The outer terminal bracts, and parietal bracts, all typically have bristly margins.
Usually, the leaves also have bristly margins, but that doesn't seem to be 100% reliable as a character. To be sure one does unfortunately need to see the involucre.
I've noticed that G. linearis is much more common in KZN except for the higher mountains. It's interesting to look at their distribution maps on iNat so far
Refer to: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/99382820#activity_comment_77900f47-c62a-4b3f-b066-ecc8d1c7cc89

Posted on August 30, 2023 10:13 AM by suvarna