Herbs, perennial, 8-27 cm tall, caespitose; rhizome robust, woody. Stems numerous or single, erect, 1.5-2 mm in diam. at base, simple, long villous (crosswalls yellow), strigillose, stipitate glandular below capitula. Leaves: basal rosulate, withered or present at anthesis, narrowly winged petiolate, blade spatulate to oblanceolate, 1.5-3 × 0.5-1 cm, 3-veined, base attenuate, margin entire or 1-3-serrulate, villous-ciliate, apex obtuse, mucronate; cauline 5-7, lower shortly petiolate or subsessile, blade oblanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate to oblong, 2-3.5 × 0.3-0.4 cm, surfaces villous, subclasping, uppermost lanate (crosswalls yellow or purple). Capitula solitary, 2-3.2 cm in diam. Involucre hemispheric, 9-20(-25) mm; phyllaries 3-or 4-seriate, purple, appressed, lanceolate, acuminate, abaxially lanate (crosswalls yellow or purple), stipitate glandular, outer 5.5-8.5 mm, mid and inner subequal, 9-11 mm, often exceeding disk florets. Ray florets 2-or 3-seriate, purple, 6.5-7 mm, tube 2.5-2.8 mm, hairy, lamina ca. 0.3 mm wide; disk florets yellow, 4.5-5 mm, tube 2.1-2.6 mm, tube and limb hairy, limb cylindric-funnelform, lobes triangular, ca. 0.5 mm, purple, glabrous, anthers and style branches often exserted from corolla. Achenes narrowly oblong, flattened, 2-2.5 mm, strigose. Pappus yellowish or brownish, 2-seriate, outer bristles 0.4-0.5 mm, inner ca. 5 mm. Fl. Aug.