Herbs 5-30 cm tall, perennial. Caudex simple or branched, densely covered with dark brown remains of petioles. Stem solitary, erect, simple, with brown glandular hairs or glabrous. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole purplish red, 2-9 cm, arachnoid; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly obovate, 5-30 × 1.5-4 cm, pinnatisect, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and glandular hairy; lateral segments 6-12 pairs, elliptic to ovate, margin coarsely triangular-dentate. Stem leaves 1-3, similar and same in division as basal leaves but smaller. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre campanulate, 2-3.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 5 or 6 rows, rigid, sparsely pubescent, basally straw-colored, apically green, margin purple, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries oblong to narrowly elliptic, ca. 7 × 2 mm, apically herbaceous, green, reflexed; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate, 1.5-1.7 × ca. 0.5 cm; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, ca. 2 × 0.3 cm. Corolla purple to violet, ca. 1.8 cm, tube ca. 1.1 cm, limb ca. 7 mm. Achene brown, oblong, 3-3.5 mm, transversely rugose. Pappus white or brownish; outer bristles ca. 2 mm, scabrid; inner bristles ca. 1.5 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.
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