Plants 30–130 cm; caudices short, woody. Stems 1–10+, ascending-erect, glabrous, sometimes sparsely strigose in arrays. Leaves: sometimes rosettes of smaller leaves present at flowering; basal and proximal cauline tapering to elongate, winged petioles, bases nearly sheathing stems, blades linear-lanceolate, 50–200 (including petiole) × 4–9 mm, reduced distally, margins entire, apices acute, faces glabrous; mid and distal cauline sessile, blades linear, 25–100 × 3–7 mm, reduced distally and sometimes scalelike, margins entire. Heads 15–190 , in racemiform to narrowly paniculiform arrays, rarely slightly secund, 12–45 × 2–11 cm, branches ascending. Peduncles 3–8 mm, glabrous or glabrate; bracteoles 3–6, grading into phyllaries. Involucres campanulate, 2.5–4 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, linear-triangular, outer 1 / 3 – 1 / 2 length of inner, 1–3 × 0.4–0.9 mm, unequal, margins involute apically, midribs usually enlarged and translucent, inner with margins involute, apices sharply acute. Ray florets 8–10; laminae 1.2–2.5 × ca. 0.75 mm. Disc florets 10–21; corollas 2.8–4 mm, lobes 1 mm. Cypselae (obconic) 1–1.5 mm (4–7 ribs lighter than body), sparsely to moderately strigose; pappi 1.5–2 mm. 2n = 18.
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