Plants 40–120 cm; caudices compact, branching, woody. Stems 1–10+, essentially glabrous. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline tapering to short petioles, blades oblanceolate, 50–70 × 10–20 mm, margins serrate, scabroso-strigose, apices acute to acuminate, faces glabrous; mid and distal cauline subpetiolate or sessile, blades elliptic-lanceolate, 30–70 × 7–15 mm, gradually reduced distally, tapering to bases, margins serrate, scabroso-strigose; branch leaves similar, reduced to bracts distally. Heads 160–480 in paniculiform arrays, with a strongly secund, primary, arching axis and nearly always 4–5(–8) leafy, elongate, arching, secund, proximal branches. Peduncles 2–5 mm, bracteolate, glabrous; bracteoles grading into phyllaries. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 3–5 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, linear-lanceolate, strongly unequal, acute to ± attenuate, glabrous. Ray florets 1–4; laminae 1–2 × 0.5–0.8 mm. Disc florets 4–6; corollas 2.5 mm, lobes 1 mm. Cypselae 1.5–2 mm (6–9 ribs), sparsely strigose, more so apically; pappi 1.5–2 mm. 2n = 18.
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