Herbs 1-5 cm tall, perennial, caespitose, stemless or shortly stemmed. Caudex densely covered with remains of petioles, sterile leaf rosettes, and flowering stems. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole to 2.5 cm; leaf blade narrowly obovate, narrowly elliptic, or broadly linear, 2-7 × 0.5-1.5 cm, abaxially grayish white or rarely yellowish and arachnoid tomentose, adaxially green and glabrous, margin pinnately lobed, sinuate-dentate, or rarely entire; lateral lobes or teeth 4 or 5 pairs, triangular, apex acute and mucronate. Stem leaves if present few, narrowly elliptic to linear. Capitula 3-10, clustered in a corymbiform or hemispheric synflorescence or rarely solitary, shortly pedunculate. Involucre ovoid, 6-8 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, basally straw-colored, apically green, sparsely villous, apex long acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 6-7 × ca. 3 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 9-10 × 3-4 mm; inner phyllaries elliptic, 7-9 × 1-2 mm. Corolla pale purple, ca. 9 mm, tube ca. 5 mm, limb ca. 4 mm. Achene brown, cylindric, 2-4 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus in 1 row, brown, bristles 8-10 mm, plumose. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.
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