Herbs 25-35 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect, flexuous, apically few branched, conspicuously winged. Basal and lower stem leaves withered at anthesis. Middle stem leaves crowded, petiolate; petiole 1-4 cm, winged, sometimes with a pair of lobes; leaf blade broadly ovate, cordate, or ovate-triangular, 5-8 × 2-4 cm, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and scabrid, base cordate, truncate, or cuneate, margin dentate. Upper stem leaves sessile, ovate to narrowly ovate-elliptic, gradually smaller upward on stem. Capitula to 3-5 in a clustered corymbiform synflorescence at end of stem or branches, shortly pedunculate to subsessile. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 5-7 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 5 rows, sparsely arachnoid; outer phyllaries ovate-triangular, 2-3 × 1.5-2 mm, apex shortly acuminate; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 3-6 × 1-1.5 mm, apex obtuse; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 7-8 × 1-1.5 mm, apex obtuse. Corolla purple, 8-9 mm, tube 3.5-4 mm, limb 4-5 mm, lobes 2.5-3 mm. Achene obconic, ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Pappus straw-colored; outer bristles 2-3 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 6-7 mm.
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