Herbs (10-)15-50 cm tall. Rhizomes brown, robust, woody. Stems erect, woody at base, apically with few branches or rarely simple. Leaves rigid, leathery, glabrous or subglabrous, venation paler than rest of blade, margin toothed and white cartilaginous. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 2.5-5 cm; leaf blade elliptic to spatulate, 4.5-9 × 1.5-5 cm, base cuneate, apex obtuse to acute. Middle cauline leaves similar to basal ones or lanceolate to oblanceolate and smaller. Upper cauline leaves smallest, linear. Capitula few or rarely 1. Involucre green to yellowish green, cylindric to ovoid-cylindric, 1.1-1.5 cm in diam., glabrous. Phyllaries imbricate, in 6-8 rows; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate to ovate, 2.5-5 × 2-3 mm; middle phyllaries elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, 7-15 × 2.5-4 mm, apex acute and with a less than 1 mm spinule; inner and innermost phyllaries broadly linear to linear, 14-20 × 1.3-2 mm, apex acute and mucronate. Corolla purple, 1.5-1.9 cm. Achene brown, cuneate-ellipsoid, ca. 6 mm, striate. Pappus 6-11 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
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