Erigeron eriocephalus Regel & Schmalhausen, Trudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk. Bot. Sada 5: 613. 1877, not J. Vahl (1840).

Herbs, perennial, 10-45 cm tall, caespitose; rhizome long, woody; caudex branched. Stems usually many, 1-3 mm in diam., ascending or erect, sinuate especially in upper part, reddish, rarely green, branched, strigillose or glabrate at base, sometimes also villous below capitula. Leaves green or reddish, surfaces glabrous, membranous, margin entire, strigillose- or villous-ciliate; basal long petiolate, blade linear-lanceolate, 1.5-6(-9) × 0.1-0.4(-0.8) cm, apex obtuse or acute; cauline sessile, blade linear or narrowly linear-lanceolate, 0.5-7(-9) × 0.3-0.5 cm, apex acute. Capitula usually numerous, in corymbose-racemiform synflorescences, 7-12 × 14-25 mm. Involucre hemispheric; phyllaries 3-seriate, reddish or rarely green, linear-lanceolate, villous, sparsely short-stipitate glandular, apex acute, outer ca. 1/2 as long as inner, inner shorter than disk florets, 6-9 × 0.6-1.1 mm, margin scarious. Ray florets 2-seriate, outer or both series laminate, 5.5-8 mm, tube 2.5-3.5 mm, lamina pink or lilac, ca. 0.5 mm wide, inner sometimes reduced to tube, uncolored, tube 2-4.6 mm; disk florets yellow, lobes pinkish or purplish, 4.5-5.9 mm, tube ca. 2 mm, hairy. Achenes straw-colored, oblanceoloid, compressed, 2.2-2.3 mm, densely strigose. Pappus yellowish to orangish, 2-seriate, outer bristles short, inner ones 5-6.7 mm. Fl. Jun-Sep.

Glacial moraines and mountains; 1600-3600 m. W Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Russia (W Siberia), Uzbekistan].