Shrub or small tree 2-3 m tall, laxly branched; stems brownish, mostly terete, slightly striate, densely minutely puberulous, the pith usually solid. Leaves opposite; blades ovate to narrowly ovate, to 11 cm long, usually to 6 cm wide, rarely to 8 cm wide, the base short-to long-cuneate, the margins sharply and irregularly serrate, sometimes doubly serrate, the apex gradually sharply acuminate, the surface minutely and sparsely puberulous, with scattered glandular punctations, the veins sometimes rather trinervate with 1-2 pairs of ascending secondary veins in the basal fourth; petioles slender, to 5 cm long. Inflorescence corymbose-paniculate, sometimes pyramidal, the ultimate branches 3-7 mm long, minutely puberulous; receptacle glabrous. Heads ca. 8 mm high with 22-32 florets; the base of the involucre with 1-3 small linear-lanceolate bracts; involucral bracts ca. 23, subimbricate, in ca. 3 series, ovate to oblong with short-acute tips, the outer surface with 2-4 indistinct costae, minutely puberulous, often with glandular punctations; corolla lavender, 4-5 mm long, hairs usually mostly on outer surface of lobes, the lobes about as long as broad. Achenes 1.5-2.0 mm long, glabrous; pappus of 30-40 bristles mostly in 1 series, distal halves of the bristles often as wide or wider than the base.
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