Plants erect to spreading, 0.5-3(-3.5) × 0.5-3(-5) dm, thinly pubescent. Leaves basal; petiole 1-3(-4) cm; blade oblong to oblong-ovate, 0.5-2(-3) × 0.3-0.5(-0.7) cm, thinly pubescent adaxially, usually densely tomentose adaxially. Inflores-cences mostly flat-topped and openly branched, usually reddish; bracts soon deciduous, 2, occasionally leaflike at proximal nodes and similar to proximal leaf blades only more reduced, short-petiolate, ovate, 0.3-0.4 cm × 2-3 mm, otherwise sessile, linear and acicular, often acerose, 0.1-0.3 cm × 0.7-1 mm, awns straight, 0.5-1 mm. Involucres in congested clusters with 1 at node of dichotomies, reddish, cylindric, not ventricose, 3-4 mm, not corrugate, without scarious or membranous margins, thinly pubescent; teeth spreading, unequal, 0.7-1.5 mm with longer of 3 longest ones more erect than 3 other shorter and less-prominent ones, awns uncinate, 0.5-1 mm. Flowers long-exserted; perianth rose to red, infrequently with white lobes, cylindric, 4.5-6 mm, pubescent; tepals connate ca. 1/ 2 their length, dimorphic or sometimes monomorphic, narrowly oblanceolate, apex rounded, those of outer whorl slightly broader and occasionally longer than those of inner whorl; stamens 9, mostly included; filaments distinct, 4-6 mm, glabrous; anthers pink to red, ovate to oblong, 0.5-0.6 mm. Achenes brown, lenticular, 3-4 mm. 2n = 38.
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