An erect bushy annual herb to c. 60 cm. tall. Stem leafy, branching throughout, sparsely pilose; branches to c. 28 cm. long, ascending, leafy; indumentum of scattered erect soft flagelliform hairs intermixed with smaller appressed 1 -2-armed T-shaped hairs on young growth and branch-ends. Leaves alternate, sessile, 1.5–8 x 1.5–2 cm., narrowly oblong in outline, pinnatipartitely lobed; lobes 10–25 on each side, mostly simple, varying ± irregularly in length on the midrib, 1–10 mm. long, linear, revolute at least when dry, membranous, glandular-punctate, sparsely pilose. Capitula numerous, corymbiformly cymose, in clusters of 6–12, clusters terminal on branches; capitula stalks 1–10 mm. long. Involucres 3–4 x 4–5 mm., spreading to c. 10 mm. wide, subglobose-cupuliform. Phyllaries many, appressed-imbricate, somewhat scarious, purple, glandular and ± puberulent towards the apex, otherwise glabrous, margins narrowly subhyaline, the outer from c. 1 mm. long, the inner to c. 3 mm. long, ovate to oblong-lanceolate. Receptacle dentate-alveolate. Corollas purple in the upper part, c. 3 mm. long, funnel-shaped with a short tubular lower portion, lobes short, sparsely glandular outside. Achenes c. 1 mm. long, shortly obovoid-oblong, rounded-truncate above, with 4–6 broad low ribs separated by narrow grooves, densely beset (except the apical part) with minute, tuberculate trichomes; pappus absent.
