Herbs, perennial, 20-50 cm tall. Leaves commonly in basal rosette, sometimes tightly alternate near base of stem; petiole 4-11 cm, wingless; leaf blade ovate, 5-10 × 3.5-6 cm, papery, palmate-pinnate veined, abaxially white tomentose, adaxially pubescent, base cordate, margin denticulate, apex acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse. Capitula sessile, arranged in spikes, 3-flowered; involucre cylindric, 3-4 mm in diam.; phyllaries ca. 7-seriate, papery, abaxially glabrous, outer phyllaries ovate or broadly ovate, 0.8-1.2 mm, inner narrowly elliptic, ca. 1.3 cm. Florets bisexual, chasmogamous and cleistogamous (at different seasons). Chasmogamous floret corollas purplish red, tubular, 1.2-1.4 cm, deeply 5-lobed, anther appendages truncate. Achenes fusiform, ca. 6 mm, densely white villous; pappus light red, ca. 7 mm. Cleistogamous floret corollas closed, tubular, minutely 5-lobed, ca. 4 mm, hidden in pappus. Achenes 5-6 mm; pappus ca. 7 mm. Fl. Oct-Feb.
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