Perennial herb 50 cm high; rhizome short, with fleshy roots; base of stem and root crown with dense long woolly hairs.. Leaves mostly near base in a dense tuft, linear, 10–17 cm long, less than 2 mm wide, base widened and clasping, margins strongly revolute, apex callous-tipped, glabrous.. Capitula in racemes or panicles; stalks of individual capitula to 9 cm long; involucre ± 12 mm in diameter; phyllaries 6-seriate, the outer spreading to recurving, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2–12 mm long, pilose, purple-tipped.. Florets mauve to pale lilac; outer florets filamentous, to 6 mm long; disc florets tubular, 7 mm long, with short setose lobes.. Achenes cylindric, 1.6 mm long, pilose; pappus of 12–16 white setae to 6 mm long.
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