Herbs 50-60 cm tall, perennial. Rhizome stout, simple. Stem solitary, erect, apically branched, sparsely strigose. Rosette and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 3-6 cm, broadly winged, wing sinuolate and decurrent on stem; leaf blade broadly ovate, 16-20 × 7-10 cm, leathery, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and sparsely strigose, base cordate, truncate, or obtuse, margin shallowly crenate, apex shortly acuminate. Upper stem leaves 2, sessile, ovate-elliptic, 7-10 × 2.5-4.5 cm, base decurrent, margin subentire, apex acuminate. Uppermost stem leaves linear, 2.5-5 × 0.1-0.3 cm. Capitula 1-4, at end of branches, in a lax racemiform synflorescence. Involucre broadly campanulate, 1-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, leathery, straw-colored with brown margin, villous; outer phyllaries suborbicular to broadly ovate, 8-10 × 3-5 mm, apical part green, herbaceous, and erect or reflexed, apex acuminate; inner phyllaries oblong, 10-12 × 1.5-2 mm, apex obtuse. Receptacle bristles 2-5 mm. Corolla purple, 1-1.2 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 5-6 mm, lobes 3-3.5 mm. Achene obconic, 2.5-3 mm, glabrous. Pappus in 1 row, 8-9 mm, plumose.
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