Herbs 12-15 cm tall. Petiole grayish purple, winged; leaf blade grayish green, usually suffused bronze, and with a light purplish gray midvein, narrowly oblanceolate to oblanceolate, 6-12 × 1.7-3.7 cm, very sparsely arachnoid, regularly pinnatisect; lateral lobes 4-6 pairs, triangular or narrowly triangular, to 1.5 × 1.2 cm, subrecurved, distal margin ± straight and entire, proximal margin entire or with a single broadly triangular tooth at base, apex acute; interlobes not spotted or faintly spotted, ca. 6 × 4-8 mm, margin usually ± entire; terminal lobe triangular, broadly triangular, or sometimes ± helmet-shaped, terminal segment with an entire margin, apex acute. Scapes purple-green at base but otherwise light green, ± equaling leaves, arachnoid. Capitulum 2.5-3 cm wide. Involucre 8-9 mm wide, base flat. Outer phyllaries 17-20, dark olivaceous green to blackish green and suffused purplish distally, imbricate, lanceolate to ovate, outermost ones 7-8 × 3-4 mm and 1/2-3/5 as long as inner ones, loosely appressed, border whitish membranous and 0.1-0.2 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate, apex flat or ± corniculate; inner phyllaries 1.2-1.3 cm. Ligules deep yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped greenish gray; inner ligules with yellow teeth at apex; ligule tube pubescent. Stigmas dirty (greenish) yellow. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains irregular in size. Achene light grayish straw-colored brown, 3.8-4 × 0.9-1 mm; body ± densely spinulose above, subabruptly narrowing into a subconic to subcylindric 0.8-0.9 mm cone; beak 8-8.5 mm. Pappus ± white, ca. 5 mm. Fl. late spring. Agamosperm.
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