Herbs 12-25 cm tall. Petiole purple, unwinged; leaf blade mid-green with a pinkish midvein, narrowly oblanceolate, 4-17 × 1.5-3 cm, subglabrous to glabrous, shallowly pinnatilobed to pinnatisect but sometimes undivided and margin dentate; lateral lobes usually 2-4 pairs, deltoid to narrowly triangular, usually patent, proximal margin ± entire, distal margin ± entire or rarely remotely denticulate, apex subacute; interlobes broad, margin subentire; terminal lobe ± triangular, margin ± entire, apex subacute. Scapes purple, overtopping leaves, glabrescent. Capitulum 2.5-3.5 cm wide. Involucre ca. 1 cm wide, base rounded. Outer phyllaries 8-12, light green, slightly pruinose, and later suffused brownish pink, not imbricate, ovate to broadly lanceolate, outermost ones 4-7 × 2.5-4 mm and 1/3-1/2 as long as inner ones, reflexed with tips pointing toward scape, border indistinct, membranous, or pinkish and ca. 0.1 mm wide, margin ± glabrous, apex flat to corniculate; inner phyllaries 1.2-1.4 cm, apex dark corniculate. Ligules light yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped faintly light grayish green; inner ligules with yellow or light grayish teeth at apex; ligule tube pubescent. Stigmas light grayish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains regular in size. Achene light grayish straw-colored brown, 3.7-4.2 × 0.7-0.9 mm; body ± densely spinulose above or often almost throughout, ± gradually narrowing into a subcylindric 1-1. cone, spinules thin and usually suberect; beak 6-8 mm. Pappus bright white, 5-6 mm. Fl. spring and early summer. Sexual. 2n = 16.
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