Shrubs to 1.5 m tall; stems terete, glabrous. Leaves opposite; blades fleshy to coriaceous, broadly elliptical to obovate, 6-11 cm long and 2.5-6.5 cm wide, the base cuneate, the margins entire, the apex rounded to subacute, the surface with sparse glandular punctations, otherwise glabrous, the secondary veins obscure, strongly ascending; petioles rather slender, to 1 cm long, glabrous. Inflorescence a corymbose panicle, to 20 cm wide and 10 cm high, the ultimate branches 5-10 mm long, densely minutely puberulous. Heads ca. 7 mm high and ca. 3 mm wide with 8-10 florets; involucral bracts violet, ca. 15, subimbricate, in ca. 3 series, lanceolate to linear, 1.5-5.0 mm long and 0.7-1.0 mm wide, the apex with slight fringe, the outer surface glabrate; receptacle glabrous or minutely spiculiferous; corolla white at anthesis and becoming red-violet, ca. 4 mm long, narrowly funnelform, glabrous inside and outside, the lobes ca. half again as long as wide; style base not enlarged, glabrous. Achenes prismatic with narrow bases, ca. 2.5 mm long, mostly glabrous, a few spicules at upper end; carpopodium distinct, the cells in 3-5 series; pappus of ca. 40 scabrous bristles, mostly ca. 3.5 mm long, the apices of many bristles somewhat enlarged, the apical cells subacute.
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