Rhizome repent, woody, with dense slender roots. Flowering stems and sterile stems numerous and caespitose. Stems erect or ascending, 5-10 cm, slender, woody at base, white or ash-gray cottony tomentose, lower parts later glabrous, usually unbranched, developed axillary buds at lower parts, all plants densely leafy. Leaves expanding, lower leaves usually caducous and lost by anthesis, linear, 5-10 × ca. 1 mm, base equilateral, semiamplexicaul; middle and upper leaves lanceolate-linear, 10-15 mm, base slightly ampliate, auriculate, amplexicaul, margin recurved, apex acute, with small tip; all leaves ash-gray cottony tomentose, midvein somewhat exserted abaxially and densely white lanate. Sterile stems relatively shorter, 2-4 mm, leaves dense, upper leaves relatively broader and shorter, obovate or spatulate, margin flat. Capitula numerous, arranged in corymbiform or compound-corymbiform synflorescences, terminal on stems and branches; peduncle 1-3 mm. Involucre broadly campanulate, 4-5 × 5-6 mm, lanate at base; phyllaries ca. 4-seriate, brownish at base, apex light yellow; outer phyllaries ovate, ca. 2 mm; middle ones oblong; innermost ones oblanceolate, with a claw ca. 2/3 of full length. Receptacle alveolate. Predominantly male capitula with male florets only. Corolla 3-3.5 mm. Pappus slightly shorter than corolla, slightly incrassate at tip of apex, serrulate. Female florets unknown. Fl. Jul-Oct.
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