Herbs 18-40 cm tall, perennial. Caudex apically covered with blackish remains of petioles. Stem solitary, purple, ca. 5 mm in diam., erect, simple, arachnoid. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 2.5-6 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate, 6-15 × 1-4 cm, runcinate-pinnately lobed or pinnately dentate, abaxially grayish green and densely arachnoid tomentose, adaxially green and glabrous; lateral lobes 3-6 pairs, semiorbicular, ovate, or obliquely triangular, base cuneate-attenuate, margin entire or with 1 or 2 small teeth, apex acute to rounded. Middle and upper stem leaves narrowly elliptic to linear, smaller than basal and lower stem leaves, margin pinnately dentate. Uppermost stem leaves subtending capitulum, linear, margin entire. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre hemispheric, 2.5-3.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 5 or 6 rows, densely villous, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-subulate, 9-12 × ca. 2 mm, apically green, herbaceous, and usually reflexed; middle and inner phyllaries subulate-linear, 13-18 × 1-2 mm. Corolla purple, (1-)1.2-1.5 cm, tube 6-8 mm, limb 6-7 mm, lobes 3-4 mm. Achene brown, cylindric, 3-4.5 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus brown; outer bristles ca. 3 mm, scabrid; inner bristles ca. 9 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.
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