Annuals, (10–)30–150 cm; tap-rooted. Stems 1, erect (often with purple or purplish brown areas), glabrous or glabrate, sometimes strigillose in leaf axils. Leaves thin (green to dark green), margins often strigilloso-ciliolate, faces glabrous; basal withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petiole bases sheathing), sparsely ciliate, blades ovate to oblanceolate, 10–90 × 6–14 mm, bases attenuate to cuneate, rounded, margins entire or serrulate or crenulate, apices rounded, obtuse, or acute; proximal cauline withering by flowering, petiolate, subpetiolate, or sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 20–100(–200) × 1.5–10(–20) mm, bases attenuate, margins subentire, entire, or serrulate, apices acute to acuminate; distal sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate to subulate, 5–113 × 0.5–5.5 mm, apices acuminate. Heads (10–) 30–100(–150), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays. Peduncles (0.2–)0.5–4 cm, bracts 4–8(–17). Involucres cylindric to turbinate, 5–7(–8.2) mm. Phyllaries in 3–5 series, broadly or narrowly lanceolate to subulate, unequal, bases indurate, margins hyaline, often purple-tinged, entire, green zones lanceolate (usually narrow, sometimes broad and covering most of distal portion), apices acute, faces glabrous. Ray florets 16–30(–54) in 1–3 series; corollas white, pink, or lavender, laminae 1.3–7 × 0.2–1.3 mm. Disc florets 4–10(–13); corollas yel-low, sometimes tinged with purple, 3.4–5.2 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes ± spreading to erect, nar-rowly triangular, 0.3–0.7 mm, glabrous. Cypselae light brown to purple, narrowly obovoid to fusiform, some-times ± compressed, (1.2–)1.5–2.7(–3) mm, 5-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose; pappi white, (3–)3.5–5.5 mm.
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Herbs, annual, 16-150 cm tall. Stems erect, sometimes purplish, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves: basal petiolate, lanceolate to ovate, usually fallen at anthesis; cauline petiolate to sessile, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2-11 × 0.1-1.7 cm, slightly reducing in size upward, surfaces glabrous, eglandular, base attenuate to cuneate, margin serrulate to entire, eciliate, apex acute. Capitula radiate, numerous, in paniculiform synflorescences; peduncles 0.3-1 cm, glabrous, eglandular. Involucre cylindric; phyllaries 3-5-seriate, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, glabrous, strongly unequal, outer 1-2 × ca. 0.2 mm, margin scarious, entire, scabrous, distally ciliate, eglandular, apex acute to acuminate. Ray florets numerous, in 1 series, lamina purplish blue, 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous, eglandular; disk florets yellow, pinkish with age, 3-3.5 mm, limb 1.4-1.5 mm, lobes erect, triangular, 0.4-0.5 mm, glabrous, eglandular. Achenes lanceoloid, 1.5-2.5 mm, 2-6-veined, sparsely strigillose. Pappus of many white, fine, barbellulate bristles, 4-5 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.
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