Plants 30–50(–80) cm; in clumps, eglandular; rhizomes short, creeping, ± woody in age. Stems 1–5+, erect to ascending, simple, strict, slender, stiff, proximally glabrous or glabrate, distally hirtello-puberulent. Leaves basal and cauline, firm, blades (1-nerved) linear to lance-linear or oblong-linear (grasslike), 25–140+ × 2–5 mm, ± coriaceous, bases sheathing, margins entire to remotely serrulate-spinose, indurate, remotely scabrous, spines thickened, apices acute, revolute, faces glabrous; basal and proximal cauline often withering by flowering, bases marcescent, ± long-petiolate; mid and distal progressively sessile and reduced. Heads 3–15+ in narrow, flat-topped corymbiform arrays. Peduncles densely hirtellous; bracts 1–2, usually immediately subtending heads. Involucres cylindro-campanulate, 7–9 mm, shorter than pappi. Phyllaries 30–55+ in 4–5 series, unequal, chartaceous, bases indurate, margins narrowly hyaline, scabrous, erose, fimbriate, apices appressed or reflexed, acute, sometimes acuminate (some outer), mucronate, marginally thickened, faces glabrous; outer lance-oblong, rounded, apical zones dark green, flat; inner linear-oblong, apical zones pale green, restricted to broadly acute tips. Ray florets 8–20; corollas bluish white to lavender or deep violet, 5–10 × 1–1.7 mm. Disc florets 15–45; corollas yellow, 5.5–7 mm, barely ampliate, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, triangular, 0.6–0.7 mm. Cypselae tan, fusiform, ± compressed, ca. 5 mm, ribs 7–10(–12) (stramineous, broad), strigillose; pappi of cinnamon to sordid bristles 5.5–6 mm, equaling disc corollas. 2n = 18.
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