Herbs 3-5 cm tall, perennial, stemless. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole 1.5-7.5 cm; leaf blade obovate, narrowly obovate, or oblong, 5-20 × 2-5 cm, lyrately pinnatisect, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and glabrous or sparsely arachnoid; lateral segments in 3-6 pairs, broadly elliptic, oblong, or suborbicular, 0.7-1.5 × 0.7-1.5 cm, margin serrate-dentate or denticulate or rarely shallowly crenate, apex rounded; terminal segment ovate to broadly ovate, 2.5-5 × 1.5-3 cm. Capitula 4-8, clustered in center of leaf rosette, forming a hemispheric synflorescence, sessile or subsessile. Involucre campanulate, 1.5-2(-3) cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, herbaceous, basally straw-colored, apically purple, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries obovate to elliptic, 4-8 × 3.5-4 mm; middle phyllaries elliptic to narrowly ovate-elliptic, 10-15 × 2-3(-5) mm; inner phyllaries linear-elliptic to broadly linear, 1.5-2.3 × 0.2-0.3 cm. Corolla purplish red, 1.6-2 cm, tube 7.5-11 mm, limb 8-9 mm, lobes 3-3.5 mm. Style branches ca. 3 mm, slender. Achene grayish brown, obconic, 6-7 mm, wrinkled. Pappus bristles in many rows, dirty white but basally pale brown, scabrid, 1.5-2 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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