Perennial herb 50 cm high; rhizome short, with fleshy roots; base of stem and root crown with dense long woolly hairs. Leaves mostly near base in a dense tuft, linear, 10–17 cm long, less than 2 mm wide, base widened and clasping, margins strongly revolute, apex callous-tipped, glabrous. Capitula in racemes or panicles; stalks of individual capitula to 9 cm long; involucre ± 12 mm in diameter; phyllaries 6-seriate, the outer spreading to recurving, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2–12 mm long, pilose, purple-tipped. Florets mauve to pale lilac; outer florets filamentous, to 6 mm long; disc florets tubular, 7 mm long, with short setose lobes. Achenes cylindric, 1.6 mm long, pilose; pappus of 12–16 white setae to 6 mm long.