rootstock woody; stems suffruticose, diffuse or ascending-erect, simple or branched, flexuous, angular, glabrate or canescent; leaves narrowed at base, linear or lanceolate, acute or subobtuse, serrulate, with subrevolute margins, one-nerved, soon glabrous above, albo-tomentose beneath; invol. sc. multi-seriate, linear-subulate, acuminate, subpungent, midribbed, the inner gradually longer; papp. bristles multiseriate, very slender, ciliato-barbellate. Very variable in the breadth of the leaves and in the size of the fl. heads. At first I had regarded the 3 vars. given above as distinct species, but a comparison of numerous specimens shows so many intermediate conditions that I cannot keep them separate. Leaves in α. and β. 2–3 in. long, 1–2 l. wide; in β. 2–2 1/2 in. long, 4–5 l. wide, with lateral veins. Heads in α. and γ. 1 in. long, 1 1/2 in. diam.; in γ. 1/2 in. long, 4–5 l. diam. Flowers purple. Pappus white.
