Shrubby climbers, grayish sericeous throughout; branches elongate, finely grooved. Leaves elliptic-oblong, 2-6.5 (-10) cm long, 1-4 (-6) cm wide, entire, slightly undulate when dry, apex acute, base cuneate to obtuse, venation reticulate, elevated on both surfaces, midrib densely sericeous otherwise glabrous to slightly sericeous on upper surfaces, densely sericeous on lower surfaces; petiole curved, ca. 2 mm long. Heads subsessile, many in narrow, terminal, short, loose panicles at end of rigid divaricate branches, peduncle puberulous; involucre tubular, 3-4 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm across, bracts 4-seriate, manifestly imbricate, ovate- to obovate-oblong, obtuse, sericeous, tinged purple toward summit. Florets usually 5 per head, corollas 5-6 mm long, pinkish on upper half, sparingly glandular, lobes 5, ca. 2 mm long. Achenes brownish, clavate, 5-angled, 1.8-2.2 mm long, densely and minutely glandular. Pappus bristles whitish tawny, 4-5.5 mm long.
KAOHSIUNG: Shoushan, Peng 16180; South Shoushan, Yang 388, 427.
India and southeast Asia. Taiwan, occasionally cultivated, locally escaped and naturalized in the south.
