Scapose herb 10–50 cm tall with perennial woody rootstock; rootstock often branched, stout, to 2 cm thick; crown of rootstock woolly. Scapes usually solitary, erect, 7–38 cm high, pubescent to tomentose with simple hairs, glabrescent. Leaves all or mostly in a basal rosette, sessile, oblanceolate or broadly so, 5–33 cm long, 1.5–9 cm wide, cuneate or attenuate into a petioloid base, margins sinuate-serrate to subentire, apex obtuse to rounded, apiculate, glabrous or shortly scattered-pubescent to scabridulous, often glandular. Capitula 1(–3), terminal on the scape; involucre cylindrical, 13–29 mm long; phyllaries 3–4-seriate, lanceolate, acute, the innermost 15–23 mm long, pectinate-ciliate on the margins. Corolla blue, purple or mauve, 19–29 mm long, lobes 4–6.5 mm long, with stiff apical hairs and stipitate glands. Achenes 9.5–10.5 mm long, many-ribbed, ascending-pubescent; carpopodium large, stopper-shaped (fide Isawumi); outer pappus 1.8–3 mm long, inner pappus 12–15 mm long, stramineous.
