Erect to ascending, up to 15 cm tall, grey-green, appressedly farinose tomentose, tuberous (?)  perennial herb with several simple, c. 5 mm thick, hollow, striate sulcate, scape-like  stems from near 1-2-leaved base. Basal and lower leaves on 1 – 1.5 cm long petioles, lanceolate, 6 – 10 x 1 – 3 cm,  ± coriaceous, usually erose-crenulate on margins, subequally caudate-attenuate at apices, with wide, pale midrib and two veins on sides; cauline leaves sessile with lamina attenuate to base, much smaller  and hidden by basal leaves.Capitula solitary, terminal, each with many florets. Involucre at anthesis cylindrical, 2.5 – 3 x (1-) 1.2 cm, hardly thickened and enlarged at fruiting. Phyllaries 3-seriate, imbricate, purple-margined; outer ones triangular-ovate, up to 1.4 cm wide, median phyllaries c. 1.5 cm broad, innermost broadly lanceolate, membranous-margined, long attenuate-acuminate at apices. Ligules yellow. Cypselas pale colored, c. 1.3 cm long, glabrous; marginal slightly curved, 2-3 sulcate, flattened  externally, smooth from base to a little more than mid point, rugulose above; central cypselas thinner than outer, distinctly grooved-ribbed, apically scabrid. Pappus purple-violaceous, bristles unequal, upto 1.5 cm long, with plumose short lower part and scabrid upper part.