Herbs 10-20[-50] cm tall, perennial. Caudex long, slender, usually branched. Stems several or solitary, erect, apically branched. Basal and lower stem leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade abaxially grayish white, densely tomentose, and gland-dotted, adaxially green and glabrous or ± gland-dotted, margin entire and revolute, apex acute. Middle stem leaves sessile; leaf blade linear to broadly linear, 4-8[-15] × 0.3-0.6[-1] cm, base semiamplexicaul. Bracts linear-subulate, smaller than lower stem leaves. Capitula many, in a terminal corymbose synflorescence. Involucre cylindric, 3-5 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 5 or 6 rows, scarious, appressed, glabrous or sparsely arachnoid pubescent, gland-dotted; outer phyllaries broadly to narrowly triangular, 3-5 × 1-2.5 mm; middle phyllaries elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 5-9 × 2-2.5 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 9-12 × 1-1.5 mm. Corolla pink to purple, 1.3-1.7 cm, tube 5-7.5 mm, limb 8-9 mm, lobes 4-5 mm. Achene brown to pale red, obconic, 3.5-5 mm, 4-ribbed, glabrous. Pappus bristles white, scabrid, 8-10 mm, not connate into a ring, persistent. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.
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