Plants erect or infrequently spreading, (0.5-)1-3(-4) × 1-3(-4) dm, pubescent. Leaves basal; petiole 0.5-3 cm; blade oblance-olate, 1-3(-5) × 0.4-1(-1.3) cm, thinly pubescent. Inflorescences with involucres in open clusters 2-4(-6) cm diam., greenish or reddish to purplish; bracts 2-3 at proximal node, usually leaflike, often with whorl of sessile bracts ca. midstem, elliptic, 0.5-1.5 cm × 2-6 mm, gradually becoming lanceolate to elliptic, 0.2-2 cm × 1.5-8 mm, at distal nodes scalelike, linear and aciculate, acerose, awns straight, 1-3 mm. Involucres 3-10 or more, grayish or reddish, urceolate and slightly ventricose basally, 4-6 mm, without scarious or membranous margins, slightly corrugate, strigose; teeth erect to spreading, unequal, 1-2 mm; awns mostly uncinate, 0.5-2 mm, with longer anterior one straight, mostly 2 mm. Flowers exserted; perianth bicolored with floral tube white to yellow and tepals red, maroon, or dark purple, cylindric, (4.5-)5-6 mm, sparsely pubescent; tepals connate 2 their length, dimorphic, obovate, those of outer whorl spreading, slightly longer than those of inner whorl, 2-lobed, emarginate, or subacute apically, those of inner whorl erect, obtuse, fimbriate apically; stamens 9, exserted; filaments distinct, 4-5 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow to golden, oblong, 1.2-1.8 mm. Achenes brown, globose-lenticular, 4-4.5 mm. 2n = (34, 36, 38), 40, (42, 44, 46).
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