Herbs 30-80 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect or ascending, simple or apically branched. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 3-12 cm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 3-12 × 2-6 cm, leathery, abaxially grayish green to grayish white and sparsely arachnoid to densely tomentose, adaxially green, gland dotted, and subglabrous, base cordate to truncate, margin denticulate, apex acute to acuminate. Middle and upper stem leaves subsessile, gradually smaller upward on stem; leaf blade narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear. Capitula numerous, in a corymbiform synflorescence, pedunculate. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 4-7(-10) mm in diam. Phyllaries in 5-7 rows, straw-colored but apically usually purple, sparsely arachnoid, glabrescent, apex acute to subacute or shortly mucronate; outer phyllaries ovate, 2-3 × 1-2 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly oblong, 3-6 × 1-1.5 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 6-8 × 1-1.5 mm. Corolla purple, 1-1.2 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 5-6 mm, lobes ca. 4 mm. Achene 4-9 mm, glabrous. Pappus white; outer bristles 1-2 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 8-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 26.
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