Perennials, 10–80(–100) cm, colonial; with thick, woody, short-branched caudices, sometimes ± cormoid, and thin, woody rhizomes. Stems 1–10+, ascending to erect or decumbent, light to dark brown, proximally glabrous, distally hispiduloso-hirsute or hirtellous, stipitate-glandular. Leaves (yellowish to dark green) thin, margins entire; basal sometimes persistent, sessile, blades (3-nerved) oblanceolate to spatulate, 20–50(–70) × 5–15 mm, margins entire (remotely serrate), coarsely ciliate, apices rounded, short-mucronate, faces usually hirsute, rarely glabrous, often also stipitate-glandular; proximal cauline sessile (often with clusters of smaller leaves in axils), blades oblong or linear-lanceolate, (15–)30–100 × 5–15(–20) mm, bases rounded or slightly clasping, margins scabrellous, apices acute to obtuse, spinulose-mucronate, abaxial faces scabrous, often stipitate-glandular, adaxial hirsute; distal sessile, blades lanceolate to oblong, 20–80 × 2–10(–20) mm, greatly reduced distally, bases cuneate to subclasping, margins ciliate, stipitate-glandular, apices acute to obtuse, white-mucronate, faces moderately strigose, moderately to densely stipitate-glandular. Heads in ample, corymbiform to diffusely paniculiform arrays, branches initially patent, then ascending (often from proximal nodes). Peduncles 0.5–5 cm, hispid, stipitate-glandular, bracts dense, spreading or squarrose (rarely ascending), linear to narrowly oblong, 3–8 mm, grading into phyllaries, spinulose, short-strigose. Involucres campanulate, (5–)7–9 mm. Phyllaries in 4–5(–6) series, outer oblanceolate, mid linear-lanceolate, inner linear, usually unequal, sometimes subequal, bases ± indurate, margins hyaline, scarious, erose, ciliate or ciliolate and/or stipitate-glandular, green zones often broadly foliaceous (outer), green in distal 1 / 3 – 1 / 2 (mid), apices spreading to reflexed (outer), acute, mid long-acuminate, faces moderately hairy, stipitate-glandular. Ray florets (10–)25–35; corollas light to dark rose-purple, lavender to deep purple, laminae 9–13(–15) × 1–2 mm. Disc florets (25–)30–40(–50); corollas yellow turning brown or reddish purple, 4.5–5.5(–6) mm, tubes 1 / 2 the funnelform to nearly tubular throats, lobes triangular, 0.4–0.7 mm. Cypselae dull purple or brown (nerves stramineous), obovoid, slightly falcate, not compressed, 2–2.5 mm, 7–10-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose or sericeous; pappi tawny (barb tips sometimes rose-tinged), 3.5–6 mm. 2n = 10, 20.
Open, dry, rocky, sandy, gravelly, or shaly soils, limestone glades and outcrops, sandstone or calcareous cliffs, open-wooded bluffs, prairies, pastures, dunes, roadsides; at elevations from 100-1,500 metres.
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