Perennials, 5–15(–25 cm); taprooted, caudices simple or branches usually relatively thick and short, rarely slender and rhizomelike, covered with persistent leaf bases. Stems erect (simple, ± scapiform), sparsely hispido-pilose, minutely glandular. Leaves mostly basal (persistent); blades spatulate to obovate-spatulate, 5–50(–70) × (2–)4–12 mm, margins (1–)2–3(–4)-ternately lobed or dissected, cauline bractlike, mostly entire, faces densely hispiduloso-puberulent to glabrate, minutely glandular. Heads (sometimes disciform) 1. Involucres 5–10 × 8–20 mm. Phyllaries in 2–3 series (purple-tipped), hirsute (hairs spreading), minutely glandular. Ray (pistillate) florets 20–60; corollas white to pink or blue, usually 6–12 mm, often reduced to tubes (heads disciform), laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 3–5 mm. Cypselae 1.6–2.7 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose-hirsute; pappi: outer usually of setae, sometimes 0, inner of 12–20 bristles. 2n = 18, 36, 45, 54.
