Herbs 15-20 cm tall, perennial, laxly caespitose. Caudex stout, simple or apically few branched, apically covered with blackish brown remains of petioles, with sterile leaf rosettes and flowering stems. Stem solitary, purplish red, erect, simple, arachnoid lanate. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole purplish red, to 2.5 cm, arachnoid lanate; leaf blade narrowly oblong, 5-10 × 1-1.5 cm, pinnatisect or pinnately lobed, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and glandular; lateral lobes 10-20 pairs, narrowly ovate-triangular, margin revolute and mucronate-dentate, apex acuminate. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre campanulate, 1.2-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, narrowly ovate-elliptic, basally yellowish brown, apically dark purplish red, margin arachnoid lanate and leathery, apex acuminate. Receptacle bristles 3.5-4 mm. Corolla purple, 2-2.4 cm, tube 1-1.3 cm, limb 0.9-1.1 cm, lobes 5-6 mm. Achene blackish, cylindric, ca. 4 mm, apex with a short crown. Pappus pale yellowish brown, in 2 rows. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
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