Plants 5–70(–90) cm (± loosely clonal, sometimes clustered; rhizomes subsuperficial, elongate, herbaceous or woody, slender, sometimes branched). Stems 1, erect, thin (1–2 mm diam.), straight, sparsely strigillose. Leaves 30–100+, crowded, proximal sometimes withering by flowering; sessile; blades linear to linear-lanceolate, 10–60 × 1–8 mm, bases rounded, margins recurved, appearing entire but remotely serrulate, scabrous, teeth minute, apices obtuse to acute, abaxial faces sparsely hispid, densely stipitate-glandular, adaxial scabrous; distal slightly reduced, rapidly becoming bracts in arrays. Heads 1–15+, usually borne singly, sometimes in loose corymbiform arrays, branches ascending, at acute angles with stems. Peduncles filiform, 3–7 cm, ± strigillose, eglandular; bracts 3–8, small, linear, scabrous. Involucres (5–)6–7.5 mm. Phyllaries lance-linear to linear, margins often pinkish distally, sparsely to moderately strigillose, sometimes sparsely glandular. Ray florets 13–25; corollas pale to deep pink, seldom white, 11–18 × 1.2–2.6 mm. Disc florets 20–35; corollas abruptly ampliate, 5–7.5 mm, glabrous; tubes shorter than or equal to tubular throats, glabrous, lobes erect, triangular, 0.5–1 mm. Cypselae tan, fusiform-obconic, ± compressed, 1.9–3 mm, ribs 5–8 (paler than bodies), faces sparsely strigillose or glabrous, gland-dotted; pappi of yellowish or pale salmon-colored bristles in 2(–3) series, ± equal to disc corollas (outer shorter and very sparse, innermost apically attenuate). 2n = 18.