Perennial herb with thick rootstock, subshrubby at base, shoots to 25 cm high; stems wingless, sparsely pilose, densely glandular with stalked glands.. Leaves lanceolate, 1–5 cm long, 0.2–0.6 cm wide, base subauriculate, not decurrent, margins denticulate with callose teeth, apex acute and slightly callose, densely glandular with a mixture of sessile and stalked glands.. Glomerules reddish purple, subglobose to broadly ovoid, 6–7 mm long, 6–8 mm in diameter; peduncle 2–5 mm long, not winged; receptacle horizontal and flat in longitudinal section; glomerule bracts green (proximal) to mauve (distal), forming a cup around the lower half or two-thirds of the glomerule, ovate, 3.5–5 mm long, to 3 mm wide, acuminate with a spinulose apex, glandular, the inner bracts also puberulous; capitula sessile, each with 4 bracts, the laterals folded, oblong, 3.5–4 mm long, distally ciliate and slightly puberulous, obtuse.. Florets: outer florets (1–)6, tube filiform or nearly so with a slightly widened base becoming corky, tube 2.5–2.8 mm long, lobes 0.1–0.2 mm long, style 2.8–3 mm long; inner floret 1, tubular and becoming corky, sparsely glandular, tube 1.5–2.8 mm long, lobes 0.3–0.4 mm long, anthers 1.8–1.9 mm long, style 2.3–5 mm long, slightly bifid.. Achenes of outer florets 0.7–1 mm long, glandular; of inner florets 1.2–1.4 mm long, fertile, or stipe-like and ?sterile, glabrous.
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