Plants acaulescent or nearly so (with dense rosettes of leaves and cluster of sessile or subsessile heads). Stems absent or very short, simple, stout, fleshy, very leafy. Leaves: blades oblong to oblanceolate or elliptic, shallowly pinnately lobed or sometimes unlobed, longer spines slender, less than 1 cm, abaxial faces green and ± glabrous to white-tomentose, adaxial faces green, glabrous or villous with septate trichomes. Heads 1–many, sessile or subsessile, crowded. Involucres 2–3 cm. P hyllaries: outer and mid lanceolate to ovate, spines slender, 1–4 mm; apices of inner linear-acuminate, often twisted, entire or minutely toothed. Corollas pink to reddish purple, 22–30 mm, tubes 10–15 mm, throats 5–7.5 mm, lobes 4–7 mm; style tips 3–5 mm. Cypselae 4–4.5 mm; pappi 17–28 mm. 2n = 34 (as C. congdonii).
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