Coarse herbs or shrubs to 5 m tall, sometimes epiphytic; stems terete or grooved, subglabrous, fistulose. Leaves opposite; blades papyraceous to slightly fleshy, ovate to oblong-ovate, to 30 cm long and 20 cm wide, the base cuneate to truncate, the margins serrate to slightly dentate, the apex sharply acute to slightly short-acuminate, the surface glabrate, the venation pinnate with many pairs of secondaries often concentrated in basal fourth; petioles 4-6 cm long, glabrate to sparsely puberulous. Inflorescence a loose corymbose panicle, to 20 cm wide and 20 cm high, the ultimate branches 3-12 mm long, densely puberulous. Heads 9-11 mm high with 14-21 florets; involucral bracts ca. 20-25, imbricate, in 3-4 series, mostly 2-6 mm long, the apices obtusely acute to narrowly rounded, the outer surface minutely puberulous to glabrate, the outer bracts broadly ovate to sub-orbicular, the inner bracts broadly oblong to oblong-lanceolate; receptacle puberulous; corolla lavender to purple, 5-7 mm long, funnelform with narrow tube as long as or longer than limb, with numerous hairs on inner surface, few hairs on outer surface, the lobes 0.8-0.9 mm long aiid 0.6 mm wide, with few nearly sessile glands and few short hairs on outer surface; style base enlarged, glabrous. Achenes prismatic, 3-4 mm long, glabrous; carpopodium distinct, with small cells in 8-10 series; pappus of ca. 40 slightly scabrous bristles, mostly 5-7 mm long, the apical cells acute.
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