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Leaves few to numerous, prostrate discolorous subsessile, 6–20 x 1.5–12 cm., oblong-elliptic, oblanceolate-elliptic or ± orbicular, rounded and somewhat cuspidate at the apex or obtuse, broadly cuneate below narrowing to a winged midrib up to c. 2 cm. long, somewhat stem-clasping at the base, margins sparsely denticulate or serrulate, slightly revolute, green and glabrous on upper surface, white araneose-sericeous beneath (the indumentum sometimes peeling off), strongly 5(7)-nerved from the base, venation finely reticulate and prominent on both surfaces, or obscured by the indumentum beneath.
Phyllaries stiffly slightly diverging, greenish to straw-coloured, chartaceous, sharply ciliolate on upper margins otherwise glabrous, the outermost usually not extending onto the capitulum stalk; the outer phyllaries from c. 7 mm. long and linear-lanceolate, usually somewhat falcate, tapering to a pungent apex; the inner phyllaries to c. 35 mm. long and narrowly lorate-lanceolate, ± scarious-winged in the lower part, inrolled and long-acuminate finely pungent to the apex; innermost phyllaries somewhat shorter, membranous winged and sharply cuspidate.
Corollas creamy to brownish usually with purplish lobes, 10–13 mm. long, infundibuliform; lobes 5–6.5 mm. long, linear, erect; achenes c. 2 mm. long, narrowly turbinate, densely long-ascending hispid; pappus copious, several seriate of plumose white setae 8–11 mm. long, shorter on the outside, seta bristles 0.5–1 mm. long.
Stems sometimes developed but abbreviated, erect to c. 5 cm. tall, simple or with a few short branches, and with 1–3 persistent leaf bases.
Involucres mostly 25–36 mm. long, 20–50 mm. in diam. in the upper part, broadly obconic-campanulate.
A perennial herb, usually acaulescent, from a woody rootstock; roots numerous spreading thong-like.
Capitula subsessile, 1–7, solitary or densely clustered in the leaf rosette.
