Subshrubs or shrubs, caespitose, 20-80 cm tall, strongly aromatic, silky puberulent, glabrescent; rootstock woody, much branched, 1.5-2.5 cm thick. Stem branches 20-30 cm. Lower and middle stem leaves: petiole 0.3-1 cm; leaf blade suborbicular or reniform, 0.5-2 × 0.8-3 cm, 2-ternately lobed or nearly 2-palmatisect; segments 1 or 2 pairs; lobules narrowly elliptic-oblanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 6-12 × 1-1.5 mm, recurved or flat. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts palmatisect, 3-lobed, or entire. Synflorescence a racemelike panicle, ± oblong, 15-20 × 3-4 cm; branches 4-6(-8) cm, obliquely erect. Capitula pedunculate, nodding. Involucre globose or subglobose, 3-9 mm in diam.; receptacle with deciduous paleaceous hairs. Florets 15-40, yellow, pinkish tinged; corolla glandular and hairy. Marginal female florets 5-10; corolla narrowly tubular, 2-toothed. Disk florets (10-)12-15(-28), bisexual; corolla limb puberulent or glabrescent. Achenes ellipsoid-obovoid, ca. 1.25 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

Hills, dry river valleys, basins, steppes, semideserts, Gobi Desert; 1300-5000 m. Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan; SW Asia].