Herbs or subshrubs, 0.7-1.5 m tall. Stems sometimes purplish red, erect, long virgately branched, woody at base, leafy, glabrous or subglabrous. Leaves subsessile, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, glabrous, with resin ducts along veins visible on abaxial side, base cuneate, margin denticulate, apex acute. Lower and middle stem leaves 2.5-10 × 0.3-2 cm. Upper stem leaves similar to lower and middle stem leaves, decreasing in size upward. Capitula several to many. Involucre cylindric to narrowly obconic, 6-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries imbricate, in 7 or 8 rows, green to yellowish green, sometimes slightly purple tinged; outer and middle phyllaries triangular, ovate-triangular, ovate, or lanceolate, 2-14 × 1-3 mm, apex acute or acuminate; inner phyllaries linear-lanceolate, ca. 18 × 1.5-2 mm, densely puberulent near apex. Corolla pale purple, 1.9-2.2 cm. Achene ellipsoid-cylindric, 7-9.5 mm. Pappus elements light brown, ca. 1.2 cm, finely serrulate, pinnate toward apex. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.
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