Herbs (5-)10-80 cm tall, perennial. Caudex simple or few branched. Stems solitary or 2-4, 1.5-7 mm in diam., erect, simple. Rosette and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 8-45 × 0.6-5 cm, both surfaces green, sometimes spotted, abaxially glabrescent, adaxially sparsely villous, margin sinuate-dentate, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves sessile, ovate and boat-shaped, 3-8 × 0.6-3 cm, both surfaces green to purple, base semiamplexicaul, margin dentate to subentire, apex acuminate. Uppermost stem leaves ovate to elliptic and boat-shaped, 2.5-6.5 × 0.5-2.3 cm, membranous, half-enclosing synflorescence, both surfaces purple, margin subentire. Capitula (1 or)2-10, in a corymbiform synflorescence or rarely solitary, pedunculate. Involucre cylindric to obconic, 0.9-1.7 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, villous, apex obtuse; outer phyllaries elliptic to suborbicular, 4.5-7.5 × 3-4.5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 6-12 × 2-3 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 12-15 × 1.5-2.5 mm. Receptacle bristles 2.5-6(-10) mm. Corolla purple, 1.3-1.4 cm, tube 6-7 mm, limb 6.5-7.5 mm, lobes 4.2-5 mm. Achene dark brown, obovoid, 4.5-5.5 mm. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles 1-4 mm; inner bristles 1-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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