Herbs, perennial, often rosulate, caulescent or rarely acaulescent with 1 or few scapes. Stems leafy or leafless, with ± stiff, yellowish brown, reddish to purplish brown, or blackish mostly glandular hairs, rarely glabrous. Synflorescence of a solitary capitulum or corymbiform, rarely umbelliform with few to several or rarely to 20 capitula. Capitula declined, pendent, or erect, with several (ca. 7) to numerous (ca. 70) florets. Involucre cylindric, broadly campanulate, or almost hemispheric. Phyllaries in several series, often dark green to purplish or blackish when dry, glabrous or with brownish, purplish, or blackish stiff often glandular hairs along midvein; outer phyllaries imbricate, centripetally longer, longest 1/3-4/5 as long as inner ones; inner phyllaries ca. 8 to many, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, ± equal to somewhat unequal in length. Florets yellow or of some shade of purple (pale, bluish, reddish, or brownish), or blue. Receptacle naked. Achene ± fusiform, weakly ± compressed, with 5 usually prominent main ribs alternating with 1 or 2 more slender secondary ribs, apex truncate or attenuate. Pappus yellowish, brownish, brown, or rarely ?whitish, bristles scabrid.

Dubyaea forrestii Mamgain & R. R. Rao (Edinburgh J. Bot. 65: 1. 2008) was described from rocky alpine slopes in Gaoligong Shan in NE Myanmar, close to the border with China or possibly inside Yunnan ("[F]lank of the N’Maikha-Salwin [Nu Jiang] divide, lat. 26°30′N, alt. 11,000′ [3700 m]"). It was described as being similar to D. atropurpurea and is known only from the type, G. Forrest 29660 (holotype, BM; isotype, E), collected in 1931.

About 15 species: Bhutan, SW China, N India, N Myanmar, Nepal; 12 species (eight endemic) in China.

(Authors: Shi Zhu (石铸 Shih Chu); Norbert Kilian)