Herbs 20-70 cm tall, perennial. Caudex simple or branched. Stem solitary, 3-6 mm in diam., erect, simple. Rosette and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, ovate, or obovate, 12-36 × 1-3 cm, both surfaces green and appressed pilose, margin undulate to shallowly sinuate-dentate, apex acute to acuminate. Middle stem leaves sessile, narrowly ovate, 8-16 × 1-3 cm, both surfaces green, tinged rose-purple, base semiamplexicaul. Bracts ovate, boat-shaped, 3.5-9 × 0.8-2.5 cm, membranous, half-enclosing synflorescence, both surfaces purple, margin entire or dentate in basal part, apex acuminate. Capitula 2-10, in a corymbiform synflorescence, pedunculate. Involucre campanulate, 1-1.5(-2) cm in diam. Phyllaries in 3-5 rows, straw-colored to purplish brown, sparsely villous, apex acute; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate, 5.5-8.5 × 2.5-4.5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate, 9-15 × 2-3 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 14-18 × 1.5-2.5 mm. Receptacle bristles 6-9 mm. Corolla dark purplish red, 1.2-1.4 cm, tube 5.5-7 mm, limb 6.5-7.5 mm, lobes 4.2-5.4 mm. Achene light brown with black spots, cylindric to obovoid, 4.4-5.2 mm, obtusely 5-ribbed. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles 0.5-5 mm; inner bristles 8-11 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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