Herbs 2-4 cm tall, perennial, stemless, sometimes laxly caespitose. Caudex simple or branched with several sterile and flowering leaf rosettes. Leaves petiolate; petiole purple, to 1 cm; leaf blade spatulate to oblong-spatulate, 0.5-3 × 0.5-1 cm, abaxially white and densely tomentose, adaxially grayish green and tomentose, base cuneate, margin entire, apex rounded and with a small mucro. Capitulum solitary, in center of leaf rosette. Involucre campanulate, 1-1.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, pale brown to blackish purple, sparsely white or yellowish villous, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries ovate, 8-10 × 4-5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 10-12 × 3-4 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 12-14 × 2-3 mm. Receptacle bristles brownish, subulate, 0.5-1.5 mm. Corolla purple, 1.3-1.6 cm, sparsely gland-dotted, tube 7-8 mm, limb 6-8 mm, lobes 5-6 mm. Achene dark brown, cylindric to obconic, 4-4.5 mm, transversely rugose, glabrous or with few sessile glands, apex with a crenulate rim. Pappus dirty white to pale brown; outer bristles very few or sometimes lacking, 2-3 mm, plumose; inner bristles 1.2-1.4 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.
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