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Leaves alternate, subsessile or shortly petiolate, up to c. 8 x 5 cm., linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate-oblong or elliptic, apex subacute mucronate, base rounded to cuneate, lamina undulate or flat; upper surface green drying brownish, finely pilose to pubescent, the hairs long-stalked T-shaped becoming rigid; lower surface densely whitish felted with short-stalked matted T-shaped hairs.
Achenes c. 5 mm. long, ± narrowly turbinate, truncate above, strongly c. 5-ribbed, minutely setulose between the ribs; pappus of sparse caducous barbellate setae up to c. 3 mm. long, sometimes absent from some capitula or even entire synflorescenees.
Phyllaries many, ± narrowly lanceolate-acuminate or attenuate, aristate, appressed tomentellous outside, often purplish towards the apex and on the narrowly membranous margins; outer phyllaries c. 2 mm. long, the inner to c. 8 mm. long.
Stems 1-several, becoming woody below, branched, leafy often densely so with new leaf whorls in axils of mature leaves, appressed tomentose; indumentum of short-stalked long-armed T-shaped hairs.
Capitula many, often laxly clustered at the ends of branches; stalks mostly 2–15 mm. long, appressed tomentellous, with 1–2 linear bracts.
Corolla purple or mauve, 6–8 mm. long, narrowly funnel-shaped, softly puberulous with T-shaped hairs especially in the upper half.
Involucres 6–8 x 5–8 mm., spreading to c. 10 mm. wide, obconic to campanulate.
A lax perennial herb to c. 60 cm. tall.