Erect sparsely branching perennial herbs to 2 m tall; stems greenish to reddish, terete, finely striate, with dense reddish puberulence. Leaves opposite; blades papyraceous, ovate, to 9 cm long and 4 cm wide, the base rounded to short-cuneate, the margins closely and often sharply serrate, the apex usually narrowly acuminate, the upper surface sparsely puberulous, the lower surface with glandular puncta-tions, puberulous on veins, the veins prominently trinervate from above the base; petioles slender, to 2.8 cm long. Inflorescence a lax corymbose panicle with branches bearing heads mostly in small clusters, the ultimate branches 1-6 mm long, densely puberulous. Heads ca. 3 mm high with 20-25 florets; involucral bracts 20-25, subimbricate, unequal, in ca. 3 series, bicostate, with narrow scarious margins, the outer surface finely puberulous, the outer bracts short-acute, the inner bracts with broader rounded or slightly mucronate, pale but firm tips; corolla lavender, ca. 2 mm long, with numerous short hairs on outer surface; style branches slender. Achenes broadest in upper fourth, distinctly constricted above, black when mature with black ribs and with numerous bristles above; pappus of ca. 30 scabrous contiguous bristles.
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