Perennial, 40-50 cm tall, with suberect, sulcate, simple, sparsely ± arachnoid hairy, several stems from the horizontally creeping, c. 1 cm thick, woody rootstock. Leaves with up to 5 (-6) cm long petiole; lamina green and sparsely hairy above, greyish arachnoid hairy beneath, ovate-oblong, 5-8 x 3-4.5 cm, deeply 2-pinnatipartite into oblong, 1-2.5 cm long, primary segments with 1.5-2 mm wide, lanceolate, acute, ± remote ultimate or secondary segments; uppermost in lower floral region pinnatipartite and gradually smaller, absent among the raceme. Capitula heterogamous, hemispherical, 4-4.5 x 4-6 mm, sessile, in narrowly oblong, 15-20 x 1.5-2.5 cm, interrupted, contracted raceme-like panicle with 2-3 cm long, erect to somewhat appressed spicate branches. Involucre 3-seriate, phyllaries purplish, sparsely arachnoid hairy, outermost broadly ovate, c. 2.5 x 1.5 mm, margins not hyaline scarious, acute, inner subequal, 2.75-3 x c. 1.75 mm, broadly scarious with purplish lines, obtuse. Receptacle ± convex, glabrous. Florets 15-20, all fertile, purplish; marginal florets 5-6, with linear-tubular, c. 1.25 mm long, glandular, 2-dentate corolla and long-exserted purple style branches; disc-florets 9-15, bisexual, corolla clavate-tubular, c. 1.7 mm long, basally glandulose, apically very sparsely hairy, 5-toothed. Cypselas linear-oblong, c. 1.75 mm long, with terminal corolla scar, brown.