Mat-forming perennial herb with crowded leaf rosettes arising from a thick woody branching underground stem, flowering stems terminal, solitary, up to 250 mm long, height depending upon age and growing conditions, loosely woolly, closely leafy. Basal leaves up to ±50 x 15 mm, elliptic-obovate, rarely lanceolate-oblong, apex obtuse to subacute, apiculate, base broad, clasping, loosely cobwebby at first, soon glabrous but margins persistently woolly, thick, leathery, commonly only the midvein visible; cauline leaves mostly oblong, up to 25 x 3 mm, decreasing in size upwards, uppermost tipped with a pink scarious bract. Heads heterogamous, campanulate, 25-30 mm long, double that across the radiating bracts, solitary. Involucral bracts in ±10 series, graded, loosely imbricate, much exceeding the flowers, acute, rich glossy rose-pink to almost crimson. Receptacle shortly honeycombed. Flowers 172-304, 8-24 female, 164-280 homogamous. Achenes 1.75 mm long, barrel-shaped, with myxogenic duplex hairs. Pappus bristles many, equalling corolla, scabrid, tips barbellate, bases cohering strongly by patent cilia.
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