Perennials cespitose or colonial, 5–30 cm; with short, erect, woody caudices from long, thin rhizomes. Stems 1–8+, erect (purplish to brown, slender), villous, more densely so distally, distally moderately stipitate-glandular. Leaves (yellowish to dark green. midrib purplish, often prominent) thin, reduced distally, margins entire; basal withering by flowering, winged-petiolate to subpetiolate (petioles ± sheathing), blades narrowly oblanceolate, 8–15 × 1–3 mm, bases attenuate, margins scabrous, apices obtuse to acute, faces glabrous or glabrate; proximal cauline often withering by flowering, sessile or subsessile, blades linear-oblanceolate, 20–70 × 1–4 mm, bases ± clasping, margins ciliate, apices acute, abaxial faces glabrous or midnerve ± sparsely villous, adaxial glabrous or sparsely villous, midnerves ± villous; distal sessile, blades linear-lanceolate, 10–30 × 1–2.5 mm, bases ± subclasping, ± rounded to subauriculate, margins sometimes stipitate-glandular, apices acute, mucronate or white-spinulose, faces glabrous or sparsely villous, short-stipitate-glandular. Heads usually borne singly, sometimes in open, corymbo-paniculiform arrays, branches ascending. Peduncles ± densely short-villous, ± densely stipitate-glandular, bracts 1–3, foliaceous, reduced. Involucres campanulate, 7–10 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4(–5) series, linear-lanceolate, subequal, bases scarious, margins hyaline or purplish, scarious, erose, ciliate or short-stipitate-glandular, green zones herbaceous at least distally, often purplish to purple, apices long-acuminate, spreading to reflexed, faces ± densely villous (outer more so), ± densely stipitate-glandular. Ray florets (8–)15–30; corollas purple to blue, laminae 5–11 × 0.5–2 mm. Disc florets 16–38; corollas yellow becoming brown, 4–6.5 mm, lobes triangular, 0.4–0.8 mm. Cypselae brown (sometimes purplish, nerves stramineous), narrowly obovoid, ± compressed, ca. 3 mm, 7–10-nerved, faces sparsely to moderately sericeo-strigose; pappi sordid (barb tips sometimes purplish-tinged), 3.5–4.8 mm. 2n = 10.
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