Herbs 1.5-6(-10) cm tall, perennial, polycarpic, caespitose. Caudex branched at ground level, usually with many leaf rosettes and flowering shoots. Stem solitary, 1-3 mm in diam., erect, simple. Rosette and stem leaves shortly petiolate; petiole purple; leaf blade obovate, spatulate, or linear-oblong, 5-20 × 2-8 mm, abaxially whitish with dark midvein and arachnoid tomentose, adaxially white or brownish arachnoid lanate, base cuneate-attenuate, margin entire, crenate, or obtusely dentate, apex obtuse to rounded. Capitula 5-20, in a hemispheric synflorescence 2-4 cm in diam., sessile. Involucre cylindric, (3-)5-8 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, membranous, straw-colored to light brown, apically dark brown strigose, apex obtuse to acuminate; outer phyllaries ovate-oblong, 7-8 × 2-3.5 mm; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 6-9 × 1-2 mm. Receptacle bristles 0.5-1.5 mm. Corolla rose-purple, 8-9 mm, tube 4-5 mm, limb 4-4.5 mm, lobes 2-2.5 mm. Achene brown to dirty white with dark spots, cylindric to obconic, 3-4 mm, smooth, glabrous or gland-dotted. Pappus mouse-gray to blackish; outer bristles 2-4 mm, sometimes reflexed; inner bristles 8-9 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 48*.
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