Plants 15–50(–70) cm, in clumps, eglandular; caudices thickened, woody, ovoid to spheric. Stems 1–8+, erect, simple, strict, glabrescent, usually ± densely villous distally. Leaves basal and cauline, thick, firm (only midnerves conspicuous), margins entire or nearly so, indurate, scabrous, apices indurate, mucronate, faces scabrous (especially distal) to sometimes glabrous, adaxial sometimes villous (especially proximal) at least along midnerves; basal often withering by flowering (bases sometimes marcescent), petioles erect, longer than blades, bases sheathing, winged, ciliate, blades narrowly elliptic to ovate or obovate, 20–70 × 8–20 mm, bases cuneate, margins sometimes crenulate-serrulate, teeth mucronate, apices obtuse to rounded; cauline usually sessile, sometimes subsessile (ascending), lanceolate to oblanceolate, 15–80(–90) × 2.5–12 mm, bases sheathing to auriculate-clasping (distal), apices acute. Heads 3–55+ in flat-topped, corymbiform arrays, branches ascending, slender. Peduncles slender, villous; bracts 1–2, often 1 near heads, leaflike (bases sometimes indurate and white as in phyllaries). Involucres cylindro-campanulate, 6.5–9 mm, slightly shorter than pappi. Phyllaries 24–35 in 4–5 series, oblong (outer) to lanceolate (inner), unequal, coriaceous (outer) to membranous (inner), bases indurate, rounded (outer), margins hyaline, narrowly scarious, ± erose, ciliate (outer), apices reflexed, green (except innermost), purple-margined, less scarious, rounded or obtuse (outer) to acuminate (inner), mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous or obscurely puberulent, eglandular. Ray florets (5–)8–14; corollas blue-violet to rose-purple or bluish, often pale, 5–8(–10) × 1–1.8 mm. Disc florets 10–20; corollas pale yellow, 5.5–6.2 mm, not ampliate, tubes longer than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes triangular, 0.65–0.9 mm. Cypselae stramineous, cylindro-obconic, 1.75–2.6 mm, ribs 9–12 (crowded), faces glabrate to strigillose; pappi of tawny to cinnamon bristles 5.9–6.2 mm, equaling disc corollas. 2n = 18.
