Herbs 8-40 cm tall, perennial. Rootstock stout, apically branched, densely covered with remains of leaf sheaths. Stems solitary or 2 or 3, ca. 5 mm in diam., erect, simple or branched from base. Leaves petiolate; petiole to 2 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to linear, 5-10 × 0.2-0.8 cm, thick, fleshy, both surfaces green and gland-dotted but otherwise glabrous or sparsely pubescent, base attenuate, margin entire or remotely denticulate, apex acute to acuminate. Capitula 1-4, at end of stem or branches and sometimes also axillary, solitary or in a congested corymbiform or racemiform synflorescence, subsessile. Involucre campanulate, 8-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, pilose, gland-dotted, apex acute; outer phyllaries ovate, 6-7 × 4-5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 7-10 × 1.5-4 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 10-11 × 1-1.5 mm. Receptacle bristles to 2 mm. Corolla purple, 0.9-1.1 cm, gland-dotted, tube 4-6 mm, limb 4-5 mm. Achene obconic, ca. 3 mm, apex with a denticulate crown. Pappus brownish to reddish; outer bristles 2-3 mm; inner bristles ca. 1 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.
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