Perennials, 30–90(–100) cm, colonial or cespitose; long-rhizomatous or with woody caudices. Stems 1–3+, erect (straight), glabrous or glabrate. Leaves thin, margins often ± revolute, scabrous, apices mucronate to mucronulate, faces glabrous or abaxial minutely pilosulous, cauline with clusters of smaller leaves in most axils; basal withering by flowering (new vernal rosettes often present), petiolate (petioles narrowly winged, sheathing, strigoso-ciliate), blades spatulate to oblanceolate, 5–40 × 5–15 mm, bases attenuate or cuneate to rounded, margins crenate-serrate, apices obtuse to acuminate; proximal cauline withering by flowering, petiolate or subpetiolate (proximalmost) or sessile (petioles winged, sparsely long strigoso-ciliate), blades elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 20–70 × 3–20 mm, progressively reduced distally, bases clasping, margins becoming short-ciliate distally; distal (ascending or spreading) usually sessile, sometimes subpetiolate, blades linear-lanceolate to linear, 5–60+ × 1–8 mm, notably unequal in size, reduced distally, abruptly so on branches, bases cuneate to attenuate, margins serrulate or entire. Heads in diffuse, ± pyramidal, paniculiform arrays, branches ± lax, spreading horizontally or arching, racemiform, subtended by patent to reflexed branch leaves, often crowded but not (or barely) secund. Peduncles slender, 0.2–3+ cm or subsessile, hairy in lines, bracts 5–15, linear-elliptic to acicular, 1–2 mm, glabrous, grading into phyllaries. Involucres cylindric, (2.5–)3.5–4.5(–5.5) mm. Phyllaries in 4–6 series, appressed or outer ± spreading, oblong-lanceolate to linear (innermost) , unequal, bases indurate 1 / 4 – 1 / 2 , margins narrowly scarious, hyaline, ciliolate, green zones oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, apices acute to acuminate, mucronate, sometimes lightly purple-tinged, faces glabrous. Ray florets (12–)16–20; corollas usually white, rarely pink, laminae 5–8 × 0.5–1.2 mm. Disc florets 10–20(–25); corollas cream or pale yellow becoming pink or red, (2.5–)3–4.5 mm, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes recurved to erect, lanceolate, 0.5–1 mm. Cypselae gray to tan, obovoid, ± compressed, 1–1.8 mm, 4–5-nerved (faint), faces sparsely strigillose or sericeus; pappi white, 2.5–3.5 mm. 2n = 16.
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