Herbs 20-50 cm tall, perennial, caespitose. Caudex stout, branched, with many sterile and flowering leaf rosettes. Stems several, erect, branched from middle or above. Rosette and lower stem leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade linear-oblong, 3-10 × 0.5-1.5(-2) cm, pinnately divided or bipinnately divided, both surfaces green to grayish green, scabrid, and shortly strigose or arachnoid; lobes ovate to linear, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves gradually smaller upward on stem; uppermost leaves linear, undivided, margin dentate to almost entire. Capitula 2-8, on stem and branch ends, in a corymbiform synflorescence, shortly pedunculate. Involucre cylindric or narrowly campanulate, 4-5 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, often reddish, pubescent or glabrescent, apex subobtuse; outer phyllaries ovate, 3-5 × 2-3 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 5-8 × 1.5-2.5 mm; inner phyllaries linear-oblong, 8-10 × 1-2 mm. Receptacle with subulate bristles. Corolla reddish purple or pink, ca. 1.2 cm, tube ca. 7 mm, limb ca. 5 mm. Achene light brown, cylindric, ca. 2.5 mm, smooth. Pappus white or light brown; outer bristles to 5 mm; inner bristles ca. 9 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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