Perennial succulent herb with thick fleshy tubers or rhizomes; stems ± trailing, to 1 cm in diameter, flowering scapes erect, 9–50 cm high.. Leaves sessile, recurved, succulent, ± glaucous, often tinged with purple, especially beneath, obovate, oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 3–11 cm long, 0.5–3 cm wide, cuneate or attenuate into a comparatively wide petioloid base, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute, apiculate, sometimes with recurving margins.. Capitula 1–3, terminal, discoid; involucre cylindrical, 12–21 mm long, 13–20 mm in diameter; bracts of calyculus obscure or absent; phyllaries 8–15, red-tinged, 12–21 mm long.. Ray florets absent; disc florets bright red, corolla 12.5–19 mm long, tube glabrous, slightly expanded in upper two-thirds, lobes 1.2–5 mm long.. Achenes 3–4 mm long, glabrous; pappus 9–15 mm long in flower, to 50 mm long in fruit (fide Lisowski).. Fig. 140 (page 693).
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