Herbs 4-7 cm tall, perennial, rosulate. Rootstock dark brown, cylindric, ca. 1.5 cm in diam. Caudex densely covered with fibrous and lacerate leaf sheath residues. Stems solitary or few, erect, glabrous. Rosette leaves filiform to filiform-linear, 3-10 cm × 1-1.5 mm, usually flat or twisted, glaucous, glabrous but margin basally arachnoid lanate, apex acuminate. Stem leaves absent or few, scalelike, subulate-lanceolate. Capitulum solitary. Involucre campanulate to narrowly campanulate, ca. 1 cm in diam. in fruit. Phyllaries abaxially glabrous, apex acute to subobtuse; outermost phyllaries triangular to triangular-lanceolate, 5-8 × 2-3 mm. Florets yellow. Achene cylindric, with smooth to tuberculate ribs, shortly villous. Pappus pale brown, ca. 1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.