Herbs 15-40 cm tall, perennial. Stems solitary or tufted, unbranched or 1-3-branched, cobwebby to lanate. Leaves leathery, abaxially whitish to grayish white and densely cobwebby to thickly lanate, adaxially green to yellowish green and sparsely cobwebby, margin and apex spiny. Basal and lower cauline leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 10-20 × 2-8 cm, bipinnatipartite or subbipinnatisect, with 5-8 pairs of segments and a triangular ultimate lobe. Middle and upper cauline leaves sessile, gradually smaller upward, pinnatipartite, semiamplexicaul. Pseudocephalia 1 to few, ± corymbose, 5-5.5 cm in diam. Capitula ca. 1.8 cm. Phyllaries 16-20, abaxially glabrous; outermost phyllaries oblanceolate, to 8 mm, unequal in length, at least 1/2 as long as involucre, claw margin sparsely long ciliate, distal portion broadly elliptic, cartilaginous, margin sparsely shortly ciliate, and apex acuminate; middle phyllaries oblanceolate, ca. 1.5 cm, margin long appressed ciliate, apex narrowed into an awn; inner phyllaries similar but longer. Corolla white or bluish, outside gland-dotted, tube ca. 5 mm. Achene ca. 6 mm, hairs yellowish. Pappus scales linear, mostly ca. 1 mm, connate almost entirely. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.
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