Perennial slender, glabrous herb, 3 – 18 cm tall. Leaves 3 – 12 x 0.3 – 2 cm, long elliptic, apex acute to somewhat obtuse, entire to lobed; petiole 5-8 cm long, brownish narrowly winged. Scapes glabrous, c. 1 – 18 cm long, 1-3, nodding after flowering. Capitulum 2 x 3 cm. Involucre 1 – 1.5 cm long and broad; outer phyllaries linear, appressed, smooth, black; inner ones 2-3 times longer than outer, black, linear, marginate. Ligules yellow; peripheral ones with dark stripes outside. Anthers richly polleniferous. Styles and stigmas black, stigmas long exserted. Cypselas greyish-brown, 3.5 – 4.5 mm long, smooth to tuberculose above, fusiform to slightly compressed; cone gradually formed, c. 0.5 mm long; beak 3 – 5 mm long, pappus 5 – 8 mm long, white to dull white or creamish.