Erect annual herb 30-150 cm tall; stems often flushed pink, striate, finely ascending-pubescent, also glandular.. Leaves narrowly ovate, 5-16 cm long, 0.8-3.2 cm wide, base cuneate, margins serrate to obscurely dentate, apex acute, sparsely ascending-pubescent mainly on main veins to almost glabrous.. Capitula in lax spreading compound corymbiform or paniculiform cymes with spreading branches; stalks of individual capitula slender, 1-18 mm long, sparsely ascending-pubescent; involucre turbinate, becoming hemispherical, 2.5-3.5 mm long; phyllaries 3-seriate, narrowly ovate, acuminate-attenuate, the very tip purplish, glandular, ciliate, 2-3 mm long.. Florets 20-27 per capitulum; corolla mauve or blue, rarely white, exserted, glandular, infundibuliform, 2-3.2 mm long, slightly hairy, lobes 0.9-1.3 mm long.. Achenes 1-1.3 mm long, 4-6-ribbed, very shortly rimmed.
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