Herbs 10-20 cm tall, perennial, polycarpic, caespitose. Caudex stout, branched, covered with dark remains of petioles. Stem solitary, 7-10 mm in diam., erect, simple, hollow and clavate at apex. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to linear, 3-10 × 0.3-1 cm, abaxially pale green and scabrous, adaxially dark green and sparsely pilose but glabrescent, margin dentate, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves sessile, 3-6 × 1-1.5 cm. Uppermost stem leaves stellately arranged, overtopping synflorescence, sessile, narrowly triangular-ovate, 2-6 × 1-2 cm. Capitula 10-15, in a hemispheric synflorescence 4-5 cm in diam., sessile. Involucre narrowly campanulate or cylindric, 6-9 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, narrowly ovate to obovate, apically villous, apex caudate; outer phyllaries 10-12 × 3-4 mm; middle phyllaries 8-10 × 2-3 mm; inner phyllaries 8-9 × 1.5-2 mm. Receptacle bristles 2-3 mm. Corolla reddish purple, 7-8 mm, tube 3-4 mm, limb 3.5-4 mm, lobes 1-1.5 mm. Achene obconic, ca. 3 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus brown; outer bristles 2-3 mm; inner bristles 6-7 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.
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