Herbs 1.5-5 cm tall, perennial, stemless or substemless, laxly caespitose. Caudex usually branched with several sterile and flowering leaf rosettes. Leaves petiolate; petiole purple, to 1.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic to spatulate-elliptic, 1-3.5 × 0.4-1 cm, abaxially white, densely tomentose, and with a conspicuous midvein, adaxially grayish green and densely villous, base cuneate-attenuate, margin entire or obtusely sinuate-dentate with purple mucronulate teeth, apex rounded to obtuse with a short mucro. Capitulum solitary, in center of leaf rosette. Involucre campanulate, 1-1.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, purplish brown and dark brown to blackish villous in distal part, apex acute to obtuse; outer phyllaries ovate, 9-11 × 4-6 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 12-13 × 3-4 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic-linear, 12-14 × 2-3 mm. Receptacle bristles few, triangular-subulate, to 1 mm. Corolla purple, 1.2-1.6 cm, sparsely gland-dotted, tube 5-8 mm, limb 6-8 mm, lobes 3.5-4 mm. Achene cylindric, 3-5 mm, gland-dotted. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles 3-5 mm, plumose; inner bristles 1.2-1.4 cm. Fl. and fr. Sep.
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