Erect herb 50-60 cm tall; stems several, arising from woody rootstock, densely leafy almost from the base, thinly pubescent with simple hairs, glabrescent. Leaves rather crowded, sessile, lanceolate, 2-4.3 cm long, 0.3-1.8 cm wide, base attenuate, margins revolute, apex acute and apiculate, thinly sericeous when young, glabrescent, glandular with sunken glands beneath. Capitula sessile in dense terminal glomerules surrounded by foliage leaves; involucre turbinate, 10-13 mm long; phyllaries 4-seriate, purplish at least in upper part, lanceolate, the inner slightly recurving, 3-10 mm long, acute, distally pubescent. Corolla purplish red or lilac, 7.5-12 mm long, lobes 1.5 mm long, glabrous. Achenes obconical, ± 3 mm long, strongly ascending-sericeous; outer pappus of narrow scales, 3 mm long, inner pappus of plumose bristles, 6-7 mm long.