Herbs 1.5-10 cm tall, perennial, caespitose. Caudex much branched, with numerous sterile and flowering leaf rosettes forming dense cushions. Leaves sessile; leaf sheath purple, 1-1.2 cm, apically densely villous at margin; leaf blade subulate-linear, 5-12 × 0.5-1 mm, leathery, both surfaces green and glabrous, margin revolute and entire, apex with a white cartilaginous mucro to 1 mm. Uppermost leaves merging into phyllaries. Capitulum solitary, in center of leaf rosettes, very shortly pedunculate. Involucre campanulate, 5-7 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, glabrous, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries ovate, 10-14 × 3-5 mm, basal part brownish or purple, apical part green, leaflike, and subulate, apex with a white cartilaginous mucro; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 6-9 × 2-3 mm, basal part pale yellow, apical part purple; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 6-9 × 1-2 mm. Receptacle bristles brown, to 1 mm. Corolla purplish red, 1-1.2 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 4-5 mm, lobes 2.5-3 mm. Achene cylindric, 1.5-3.5 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus brown; outer bristles 2-3 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 7-8(-12) mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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