Perennial dwarf herb with annual shoots, 7–35(–70) cm high; rhizome vertical, root-crown with a few reduced leaves; stems sparsely puberulous, glabrescent, but lanate just below the capitulum. Leaves narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, sometimes pinnatifid, 5–20 cm long, 1–5 cm wide (including the lobes), base amplexicaul and auriculate, margins entire or dentate, lobes (when present) narrowly triangular, to 2 cm long, apex acute, glabrous or with some hairs near the base; midrib wide, sometimes reddish. Capitula few, in lax leafy panicles; involucre 16–20 mm long, ± cylindric; phyllaries lanceolate, 3–20 mm long, acute, white-tomentose near the base, otherwise glabrous, margins of innermost membranous. Florets ± 65; corolla yellow, the outermost purplish beneath, tube cylindric, 9–11 mm long, ligule 4–6 mm long, 1–1.3 mm wide. Achenes brown, narrowly obovoid, flattened, 4.5–5 mm long, ribbed; pappus white, 9–10 mm long.
