Perennial herb, with annual shoots from a woody rootstock; stems solitary or two, 30–50 cm high, appressed white-tomentellous, with radical leaves and cauline leaves all the way up the stem.. Leaves dark brown above, whitish beneath, linear, the basal ones very long, the cauline ones shorter but similar, 3–35 cm long, 0.2–1 cm wide, base attenuate but clasping the stem, apex acute, glabrous above, appressed white-tomentellous beneath.. Capitula 2.5–4 mm long, homogamous, very many together in dense subglobose primary clusters, these packed tightly in secondary bulbous groups, the whole subtended by short leaves; phyllaries yellow, 3-seriate, linear to lanceolate, 2–3 mm long, acute, glabrous but those of the outermost capitula in the cluster hairy; receptacle not fimbriate.. Florets yellow, 4–5 in number, hermaphrodite, tube cylindrical, 1.9–2.3 mm long, lobes 0.2–0.3 mm long, glandular, anthers 1.2–1.3 mm long, style 2.1–2.6 mm long.. Achenes cylindric, 0.6–1 mm long, glabrous; pappus 2–2.5 mm long, flattened and subplumose distally, deciduous in groups.
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