Herb with annual stems 10–40(–70) cm tall from a perennial woody rootstock; stems several, erect or ascending, branching, sometimes purplish, faintly ribbed, sparsely pubescent with ± ascending simple hairs. Leaves sessile, linear-elliptic or oblanceolate-oblong, 1–6 cm long, 0.1–0.8 cm wide, base cuneate or attenuate, margins serrate to subentire, apex obtuse to acute and apiculate, puberulous but glabrescent, densely gland-dotted beneath. Capitula solitary and terminal on the branches, long-pedunculate, but several branches close together may give the look of a compound inflorescence; involucre 5–12 mm long, 8–14 mm in diameter; phyllaries greenish yellow, 4-seriate, erect or the outer slightly recurved, purple in upper part, narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate, the inner narrowly oblong, 5–12 mm long, acute or pungent, minutely puberulous and glandular, pectinate on margins. Corolla pale to deep purple, 6–11 mm long, the tube finely hairy with long slender hairs, lobes 1.5–3.3 mm long, with or without long fine apical hairs. Achenes brown, cylindric, 3.8–5 mm long, narrowly 10-ribbed, ascending-pubescent; outer pappus of narrow scales 1–1.5 mm long, inner pappus tawny or stramineous, 6–8 mm long.
