Perennial, unarmed, mostly acaulescent rarely caulescent (short stemmed) herbs. Leaves mostly in rosettes, sometimes cauline when caulescent. Capitula mostly solitary or many in leaf rosettes, terminal, usually substended by linear, herbaceous leafy bracts. Involucre campanulate, phyllaries multiseriate, imbricate. Receptacle usually flat, alveolate, naked or the margins of alveolae with short cartilaginous protuberances. Corolla purplish red to pale purple, usually gland‒dotted. Anthers caudate with lacerate tails. Cypselas tri‒tetragonous, with an apical rim having a distinct umbo. Papus multiseriate, bristles mostly scabrid or shortly plumose, united basally into a ring, dispersed as a whole unit.

A small genus with c. 13 species mostly concenterated in China, Pakistan, N. W. India to eastern Himalayas, Nepal and Myanamar. Represented in Pakistan by two species.