Herbs 2-6(-10) cm tall, perennial, polycarpic, shortly stemmed. Caudex slender, branched, with several leaf rosettes and flowering stems, covered with remains of petioles. Stem solitary, 1-3 mm in diam., erect, simple. Rosette and stem leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to obovate, 1.5-4 × 0.4-1 cm, abaxially white lanate, adaxially yellowish or white lanate, base cuneate-attenuate, margin crenate or entire, apex obtuse. Capitula 3-15, in a hemispheric synflorescence 1.5-4 cm in diam., sessile. Involucre cylindric to narrowly campanulate, (5-)7-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, scarious, apically purple or blackish, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 9-13 × 2.5-3 mm, apically lanate; middle phyllaries narrowly oblong, 8-13 × 1.5-2.5 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 9-13 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Receptacle bristles white, 0.5-2.5 mm. Corolla purple, 9-10 mm, tube 3-4 mm, limb 6-6.5 mm, lobes 2-2.5 mm. Achene cylindric to obconic, 3-4 mm, glabrous. Pappus in 2 rows; outer bristles dirty white, 2-5 mm, scabrid to plumose, sometimes lacking; inner bristles basally brown, apically dirty white, 8-11 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
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