Monocarpic, 1 – 4 cm high or stemless, perennial  herb with short rootstock covered with  brown petiolar remains  of previous growth. Leaves rosetted, on  5 – 10 (–12) cm long petioles, elliptic, ovate or spathulate, 10 – 25 (-30)  mm long, 5 – 15  mm wide, ± succulent  and becoming coriaceous  and stiff  on  drying, green on either side often with a red or purplish base, glabrous above, sparsely arachnoid woolly hairy beneath, basally cuneate,  ± entire to obtusely  crenate-margined, apices  mostly obtuse; upper leaves, if present, somewhat orbiculate. Capitula sessile, ± hemispherical, 2–10, aggregated in center  of leaf rosette, forming a cluster, synflorescence 1.5 – 3 cm across. Involucre campanulate, 7 – 9 mm wide, purplish. Phyllaries 3 – 4–seriate, thin, glabrous, purplish-red, apically obtuse; outer phyllaries obovate, ca 7 mm long, 2.5 – 3 mm wide; inner one narrowly elliptic-oblong, 7 – 8 mm long, 1.5 – 2 mm wide, subobtuse. Receptacle with upto 1 mm long, brown bristles.  Corolla bluish-purple, 6 – 7 mm long, tube 3 – 3.5 mm long, limb somewhat longer than tube with 1.5 – 2 mm long lobes. Anther tails short, entire. Cypselas oblong-obconical, brown, 3.5 – 4 mm long, wrinkled, glabrous. Pappus brown, plumose, outer bristles  2.5 – 5 mm long, twisted like a corkscrew, inner bristles 6 – 7 mm long.