Perennial herb, c. 15 cm tall. Leaves 10 – 20  x 1 – 2  cm, glabrous, bluish-green, pinnatipartite, lobes runcinate, long, narrow, usually entire, 4-7 on each side, terminal lobe 3 x 1 cm, longer than lateral ones; petiole 4 – 6  cm long, purple, narrowly winged at the base, glabrous. Scapes numerous as long as leaves. Capitulum c. 3 cm across. Involucre 15 x 15 mm, outer phyllaries ± recurved, reticulate, 3 – 12  x 2 – 4  mm, lanceolate to ovate, dull-yellow to pink with purple tips, ecorniculate, few slightly toothed, scarious and with purple midvein or with a darker middle strip and otherwise scarious; inner ones linear, dark-green, narrowly marginate. Ligules yellow, peripheral ones with dark stripes outside. Anthers polliniferous. Styles and stigmas drying black. Cypselas brownish to dull-yellow, 3.5 – 4  mm long, with small blunt spinules above, rugose below, smooth at base; cone 0.6 – 0.8  mm long, conical, abruptly formed; beak 7 – 8  mm long; pappus 6 – 7  mm long, snowy-white, scabrous.