Herbs 3-12 cm tall, perennial, caespitose. Caudex branched, with many sterile leaf rosettes and flowering stems, covered with brown fibrous remains of old leaf sheaths. Stem erect, simple, purple and densely sericeous. Rosette and basal stem leaves sessile, narrowly linear, 3-8 × 0.1-0.2 cm, both surfaces grayish white and lanate, base widened and sheathing stem, margin revolute and entire, apex acuminate. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre obconic, 2.5-3.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, purple, white villous; outer phyllaries ovate, 10-12 × 4-5 mm, apex acuminate to caudate; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 12-15 × 2-4 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 14-15 × 1-2 mm. Corolla rose-purple, 1.6-1.8 cm, tube 9-10 mm, limb 7-9 mm, lobes 5-6 mm. Achene brown, cylindric, ca. 2 mm, apex with a short crown. Pappus yellowish brown; outer bristles 1-3 mm; inner bristles 1.1-1.5 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
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