Herbs 15-25 cm tall, perennial. Roots stout, fibrous. Caudex branched, with several leaf rosettes and flowering shoots. Stem solitary, erect, simple or branched. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade obovate, 7-8 × 1.5-2 cm, pinnately lobed, pinnately dentate, or lyrate-pinnately lobed, both surfaces green, strongly scabrous, hispid, apex rounded. Middle and upper stem leaves sessile, gradually smaller upward on stem, narrowly ovate-elliptic, base amplexicaul, margin pinnately dentate, apex acuminate. Capitula 1 to few, solitary or in a corymbiform synflorescence, sessile or shortly pedunculate. Involucre obconic, 7-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 4-6 rows, pubescent, apex attenuate into a short cusp; outer phyllaries ovate; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear. Receptacle with bristles. Corolla pale red, 1.4-1.5 cm, tube ca. 7 mm, limb ca. 8 mm, lobes ca. 4 mm. Achene cylindric, 4-5 mm, glabrous. Pappus white; outer bristles 1-5 mm; inner bristles 1.2-1.3 cm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.
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