Shrubs, deciduous, 0.6-1.6 m tall. Leaves on long shoots alternate, petiole 3-5 mm, leaf blade elliptic or suboblong, 2-6 × 1-2 cm, papery, both surfaces villous when young and glabrescent when old, base rounded or cuneate, margin entire, apex mucronate to acuminate; leaves on branchlets tufted, subsessile, leaf blade broadly lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate. Capitula solitary, terminal on branchlets, subsessile or with peduncle ca. 8 mm, dioecious, hysteranthous, 7-10 mm in diam.; involucre campanulate or subcylindric, 6-8 mm in diam.; phyllaries 2-or 3-seriate, few, subequal, oblong or suboblong, 8-10 mm, abaxially densely sericeous. Female floret corollas purple, ca. 13 mm, irregularly deeply 5-lobed, often with one slit deepest; male floret corollas white, ca. 13 mm, irregularly deeply 5-lobed. Achenes fusiform, ca. 7 mm, densely hairy; pappus setae of female florets numerous, light white, ca. 10 mm; pappus setae of male florets very few, snow white, 7-8 mm. Fl. Apr-May.