Perennial, non-tuberous, woody, farinose, ± tomentose, 40 – 50  cm tall herb. Stems many, erect, intricate, costate, bent, decumbent or ascending, grayish-green.  Leaves  linear  to  filiform, 20 – 30 x c. 1 mm,  entire, acute and recurved. Peduncle thin,  25 – 30  mm, elongating to c.6 cm at fruiting,  flexible, pubescent, branched, circinate. Capitula c. 15 x 4 – 5  mm. Involucre narrowly cylindrical,  11 – 12 mm long at anthesis, elongating to c. 15 mm at fruiting. Phyllaries  biseriate, pubescent, entire, acute; outer ones triangular-lanceolate, 2 – 4 x 1 – 2  mm; inner phyllaries 5-7, linear-oblong, 11 – 12 x 1 -  2 mm, membranous and indistinctly violaceous on margins. Florets yellow,  with outside of ligules purplish streaked. Cypselas linear, 9-11 mm long,  narrowed to base and apices, 10-12-ribbed, glabrous, brown. Pappus uniseriate, 14 – 15 (-17) mm long, bristles c. 30, plumose below, scabrid above, dirty-white.