Herbs 10-60 cm tall, biennial or perennial. Stems solitary or several, procumbent, ascending, or erect, simple or branched in upper half, distinctly winged. Stem leaves narrowly elliptic to linear, 1.5-2.5 × 0.3-0.7 cm, both surfaces green, scabrid, and pilose, base long decurrent, margin pinnately lobed or dentate, apex acute. Capitula 1-8, solitary or clustered in a corymbiform synflorescence, sessile or shortly pedunculate. Involucre campanulate, (0.5-)1-1.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, greenish with dark midvein, villous to glabrescent; outer phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 2-4 × 1-2 mm, erect or slightly recurved, apex acuminate; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 4-8 × 1-2 mm, appendage dark, widened, and cuspidate; inner phyllaries linear, 8-11 × 1-1.5 mm, appendage purple, suborbicular, widened, membranous, and denticulate. Receptacle bristles 7-8 mm. Corolla purple, 1.7-1.8(-2) cm, tube ca. 1 cm, lobes ca. 5 mm. Achene dark brown, cylindric, ca. 3.5 mm, ribbed, glabrous. Pappus white; outer bristles to 5 mm; inner bristles ca. 1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
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