Herbs 2-12 cm tall, perennial, densely caespitose. Rootstock stout, with fibrously split bark. Caudex stout, much branched, densely covered with remains of petioles, with many sterile and flowering leaf rosettes. Stem solitary, prostrate or ascending, simple or apically branched. Rosette and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 0.5-2.5 cm; leaf blade narrowly ovate, 2-4(-10) × 0.3-0.5(-1.2) cm, slightly fleshy, pinnately lobed or subentire, scabrid, arachnoid or subglabrous, margin coarsely dentate. Upper stem leaves sessile, base weakly amplexicaul. Capitula 3-7, in a corymbiform synflorescence, shortly pedunculate. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 5-12 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, arachnoid to glabrescent, apex obtuse; outer phyllaries ovate, 4-5 × 2-3 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 5-8 × 1.5-2.5 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic-linear, 8-11 × 1-1.5 mm. Receptacle with few bristles or naked. Corolla pale purple, 1.3-1.4 cm, gland-dotted, tube 6-7 mm, limb 6-7 mm, lobes 3.5-4 mm. Achene ca. 4 mm, smooth, glabrous, apex with a short crown. Pappus dirty white; outer bristles 3-6 mm, plumose; inner bristles 1-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug.
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