Herbs, perennial, 3-15 cm tall, caespitose; rhizome procumbent, caudex thick, branched, woody; taproot thick, woody. Stems ascending, sometimes erect, simple, slender, reddish brown striate, villosulous, sometimes sparsely so, sparsely to densely (distally) minutely stipitate glandular, scapiform. Leaves basal and cauline, both surfaces sparsely strigillose or glabrous or sometimes distally sparsely to moderately strigillose and veins sparsely to densely strigillose, margin entire, strigillose-ciliate, midvein prominent abaxially; basal leaves present at anthesis, marcescent, long winged petiolate (petiole to 2 cm); blade obovate to oblanceolate, 0.2-6 × 0.1-0.9 cm, base attenuate, apex rounded or retuse to obtuse, largest mucronulate; cauline leaves subpetiolate or sessile, narrowly oblong-oblanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 0.9-3.5 × 0.2-0.4(-0.7) cm, abruptly reduced and gradually smaller distally, base cuneate to rounded, apex obtuse to acuminate, mucronulate. Capitula terminal, solitary, 3-4.5 cm in diam. Involucres broadly campanulate, 0.5-1(-1.5) cm in diam.; phyllaries 3-seriate, subequal, spreading to squarrose, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate (some inner phyllaries), 6-12 × 0.5-2 mm, abaxially strigillose, basally more so, or glabrous, minutely stipitate glandular, membranous, margin narrowly to broadly scarious, erose, eciliate, sometimes purplish, few veined, midvein prominent, apex acute to acuminate, tip sometimes purplish. Ray florets 12-26, purple to lavender or lavender-blue, tube ca. 3 mm, lamina 12-22 × 1-2.5 mm, glabrous, eglandular; disk florets yellow to yellow-orange, 4.6-5 mm, tube ca. 1.5 mm, limb narrowly funnelform, 3.2-3.5 mm, base sparsely hairy, lobes spreading, triangular, ca. 1 mm, eglandular. Achenes narrowly obovoid, ± compressed, 3.5-4 mm, strigillose, eglandular, margin 3-ribbed. Pappus 4-seriate, white; outermost series of few white scales 0.5-1 mm; bristles barbellate; outer bristles few, slender, 2-3 mm; inner bristles 4-4.5 mm, acute; innermost bristles faintly reddish, 5-5.5 mm, weakly clavate. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Forest and thicket margins, open grasslands, meadows, pastures, open slopes, stony or scree slopes, cliff faces, stream banks; 2500-4600 m. SW and W Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan.