Herbs, perennial, 20-60 cm tall. Leaves in basal rosette; petiole short, nearly absent or 3-8 mm, wingless; leaf blade obovate or obovate-rounded, 3-10 × 2-6 cm, papery, palmate-pinnate veined, both surfaces sparsely villous, base rounded, abruptly constricted into petiole, margin callose-denticulate, apex obtuse or rounded. Capitula subsessile or shortly pedunculate, commonly 2 or 3 clustered, arranged in spikes; involucre cylindric, 2-3 mm in diam.; phyllaries ca. 6-seriate, papery, abaxially glabrous or very sparsely pilose, outer phyllaries ovate, 1.5-3 mm, inner narrowly elliptic, ca. 1 cm. Florets bisexual, chasmogamous and cleistogamous (at different seasons or in same plant). Chasmogamous floret corollas tubular, ca. 1.3 cm, deeply 5-lobed, lobes linear, unequal, anther appendages truncate. Achenes oblong, ca. 4 mm, ribbed, densely white pilose; pappus brownish, ca. 8 mm, sometimes absent. Fl. Nov-Jun and Sep-Oct. Cleistogamous floret corollas closed, tubular, minutely 4-lobed, ca. 4 mm, hidden in pappus. Achenes oblong, 4-5 mm, ribbed, densely pilose; pappus brownish, ca. 7 mm. Fl. Jan-Mar, May, Aug-Nov.
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