Herbs, biennial or short-lived perennial, 3-30 cm, caespitose; rhizome weak. Stems usually several, 1-1.5 mm in diam., erect or ascending, slenderly branched, green or purplish tinged, sparsely hirsute, especially upward. Leaves basal, rosulate, petiolate or subsessile, blade linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate or spatulate, 1-10 cm × 0.15-6 mm, surfaces sparsely hirsute, margin entire, hirsute-ciliate, apex acute; cauline few, sessile, ± subclasping, blade linear, upper reduced gradually. Capitula 8-10 × 15-20 mm, solitary or several in racemiform, rarely paniculiform synflorescences, long pedunculate. Involucre hemispheric; phyllaries 3-seriate, linear-lanceolate, abaxially hirsute, apex acuminate, outer almost 1/2 as long as inner, inner yellowish green, purple at apex, often exceeding or sometimes equaling disk florets, 5.5-8.5 × 0.5-0.75 mm, margin narrowly scarious. Ray florets 3-or 4-seriate, lilac or pink to pale violet, 5-7 mm, tube 2.5-3 mm, hairy distally, lamina involute; disk florets pale yellow, ca. 4.2 mm, hairy, tube ca. 2 mm, limb narrowly cylindric, lobes lanceolate, ca. 0.2 mm, glabrous, often purplish tinged, anthers and style branches not exserted from corolla. Achenes straw-colored, narrowly oblong, 1.5-2 × ca. 0.3 mm, sparsely strigose. Pappus yellowish, 2-seriate, outer bristles ca. 0.6 mm, inner 4.5-5 mm. Fl. Jul-Sep.
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Biennials or short-lived perennials (sometimes appearing annual), 2–45(–60) cm; fibrous-rooted, caudices simple. Stems erect or basally ascending, sparsely to densely hirsute, eglandular. Leaves basal (persistent) and cauline; basal blades oblanceolate to spatulate, 13–80(–150) × 1.5–5(–12) mm, margins entire, usually spreading ciliate, faces sparsely to moderately hirsute to glabrate, eglandular; cauline mostly linear (sometimes longer than basal, usually erect or nearly so). Heads 1 or 3–12 usually in loosely racemiform arrays (from erect peduncles distal to midstems, sometimes on proximal 1 / 3 ). Involucres 4–9 × 7–17 mm. Phyllaries in 2–3 series (inner apices acute to acuminate), hirsute to strigoso-hirsute, eglandular. Ray (pistillate) florets 70–130 (in 1 series); corollas white to light pink, 2–3 mm, laminae (filiform) erect, not coiling or reflexing (not surpassing involucres). Disc corollas 3–5 mm. Cypselae 1.3–1.8 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 20–30 (non accrescent) bristles. 2n = 18.
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