Annual or biennial herbs, stems erect, 40-80 cm tall, terete, glabrescent near base, pubescent upward, well branched, branches ascending. Radical leaves oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, 4-13 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, apex obtuse to acute, base narrowed into winged petiole, margins entire or remotely serrate, sparsely strigose or nearly glabrous on both surfaces, ciliate, withered at anthesis. Cauline leaves green or pale green, thin, sparsely strigose or nearly glabrous on both surfaces, oblanceolate to linear, sometimes slightly recurved, apex obtuse to acute, base cuneate, sessile, margins entire or remotely serrate, hispid on veins on lower surface, ciliolate; middle leaves 15-35 mm long, 1.4-3 mm wide; upper leaves gradually smaller and narrower. Heads many, 2.5-4 cm across, solitary or few on terminal branches, forming loose corymbs, peduncle 8-7 cm long, bracteate. Involucre hemispheric or bowl-shaped, 7-10 mm long, 12-16 mm broad, bracts green, herbaceous, 2- or 3-seriate, subequal, linear lanceolate or subulate, entire, acuminate to attenuate-acuminate, 5.5-7 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, sparsely hirsute outside, margins membranaceous, ciliate. Receptacle convex, scrobiculate. Ray florets 15-20 in 1-seriate, sometimes 2-seriate, ligules blue-violet, rarely white, 8-12 mm long, 1.5-3 mm wide, tube 1.2-1.5 mm long. Disc florets, yellow. Pappus dimorphic, those of ray florets white, 0.5-1 mm long, crown-shaped, those of disc florets reddish, 3-4 mm long. Achenes brown, obovate, compressed, 2.5-3 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, sericeous, sparsely glandular punctate on upper part. Fl. Dec-Apr. Chromosome number, 2n = 36 (Gu, Cathaya 1: 36. 1989).

MIAOLI: Byoritsu, Nagasawa s. n. 1898.HUALIEN: Yenhai, Peng 13066; Tienhsiang, Peng 9263.

Distributed widely in Siberia, Mongolia, northern China, Korea and Japan. Taiwan, at low elevations, frequent on low, limestone slopes in the eastern part.