Annual or short-lived perennial herb 0.2–1 m, unbranched or with few branches; stems dark reddish, sparsely pubescent, glabrescent.. Leaves aromatic, sessile, oblong-lanceolate, 2–9 cm long, 0.4–2 cm wide, base wide, rounded and auriculate, margins serrate with callose teeth, apex acute or apiculate, pilose especially on margins and midrib (the hairs with ?glandular bases).. Capitula 7–14 mm long, subglobose, in few-headed terminal corymbs; stalks of individual capitula 0.5–5 cm long, pubescent and glandular; phyllaries green with purple tips, many, narrowly triangular, 3–7 mm long, with narrow scarious margins, attenuate, pubescent and glandular; receptacle flat, areolate.. Florets pink, mauve or purplish; outer florets many (up to several hundred), tube filiform, 2.5–3.3 mm long, minutely lobed distally, the lobes < 0.1 mm long and occasionally with a hair or two; style 3–3.6 mm long, with glabrous branches; inner florets 30–40 with tube 2.8–4 mm long, widening gradually, sparsely pilose, lobes 0.4–0.5 mm long, pilose and glandular; anthers 1.5–1.8 mm long and short-tailed, with short apical appendages; style 4.2–4.6 mm long, with hairy branches.. Achenes cylindrical, 0.7–0.9 mm long, pubescent; pappus of 5–8 bristles, 3–5 mm long.
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