Erect or procumbent annual to perennial herb 0.2–1.2 m high, much branched from the base, stems often reddish or purple; branches winged, the wings to 4 mm wide and entire to denticulate and glandular, puberulous or scabridulous but glabrescent.. Leaves aromatic, narrowly (ob-)lanceolate, 1–8.5 cm long, 0.2–2 cm wide, base attenuate and decurrent, margins entire to dentate, apex acute or obtuse and mucronate to almost spinulose, sparsely puberulous, glabrescent, glandular-punctate.. Glomerules purple or mauve, subglobose to ovoid-conical, 5–10 mm long, 7–12 mm in diameter; peduncle 0.3–4.5 cm long, winged or unwinged, indument as stems; receptacle suborbicular or ovoid; glomerule bracts distally mauve, mostly visible, the proximal 2–3 series forming a shallow cup or covering the base of the glomerule, ovate to oblong, 2–6 mm long, 1.5–1.8 mm wide, margins ciliate, acuminate and often spinulose in the proximal ones, puberulous to almost glabrous and glandular; capitula sessile, with 3(–4) bracts, the laterals folded, narrowly elliptic, 2.5–4 mm long, scarious and ciliate, truncate to acute, puberulous distally.. Florets: outer florets 2–6, stalked for up to 0.2 mm, tube filiform to becoming corky and narrowing from a rather wide base, 1.3–2.5 mm long, glandular, minutely toothed, style 1.7–2.5 mm long; inner florets 1–2, tube cylindrical, (slightly) constricted near the base, becoming corky, constricted below the lobes, 1–2 mm long, glandular, lobes 0.3–0.7 mm long, anthers 1.3–1.6 mm long, style 1.9–4 mm long, minutely bifid.. Achenes of outer florets cylindrical, 0.6–1.4 mm long, puberulous and glandular, of inner florets slightly obovoid, (0.6–)0.9–1.8 mm long, fertile or sterile, puberulous and glandular.
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