Coarse perennial herbs or subshrubs to 1 m tall, branching mostly from the base; stems becoming pale brown, terete, striate, densely hirtellous with minutely gland-tipped hairs. Leaves usually crowded and much imbricated, opposite, oblong-elliptical to oblanceolate, 4-12 cm long and 0.7-2.0 cm wide, the base sessile, usually narrowly cuneate and somewhat petioliform, the margins entire or subentire, the apex obtuse with a mucro, the upper and lower surfaces obscurely glandular-punctate and densely hirtellous with minutely gland-tipped hairs, the venation pinnate with ascending secondary veins. Inflorescence paniculate with somewhat densely corymbose branches, the branches densely hirtellous with minutely gland-tipped hairs, the ultimate branches 1-8 mm long. Heads 7-8 mm high with 21-25 florets; involucral bracts ca. 25, subimbricate, in 2-3 series, 2-6 mm long, linear with little or no scarious margin, the apex attenuate with many nonglandular hairs, the outer surface covered with stipitate glands; corolla reddish to lavender, ca. 5 mm long, narrowly funnelform, glabrate, the lobes 0.5-0.7 mm long, longer than wide, sparsely glanduliferous on outer surface. Achenes 1.2-1.5 mm long, with numerous bristles mostly on the ribs; pappus of ca. 25 slender bristles.
Home