Herbs, perennial, 4-24 cm tall; rhizomes long, slender, sometimes with short stolons. Stems ascending, rarely erect, sparsely to moderately villous, eglandular. Leaves basal and cauline; cauline leaves reduced upward, sometimes abruptly so, thin, glabrous, eglandular, abaxial veins sparsely pilose, adaxial veins also moderately pilosulose, margin serrate to serrulate or entire (uppermost leaves), midvein abaxially prominent, ciliate, apex mucronate; basal leaves present at anthesis, sometimes marcescent; basal and lower cauline leaves broadly to narrowly winged petiolate (petiole to 2 cm); blade obovate to oblanceolate, 0.5-4 × 0.3-1.5 cm, base attenuate, apex rounded; cauline leaves ± erect, sessile, obovate to ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1-2.5 × 0.9-3 cm, base rounded or cuneate, subclasping, apex rounded to acute. Capitula terminal, solitary, often subtended by a leaflike bract, 2-3 cm in diam. Involucres hemispheric, 5-9 mm; phyllaries 2- or 3-seriate, subequal, often squarrose, linear-lanceolate, 8-10 mm, leaflike, margin broadly scarious, erose, eciliate, midvein conspicuous proximally, apex acuminate, purplish distally; outer phyllaries 1-1.8 mm wide, abaxially villous proximally to sparsely to moderately so distally, eglandular; inner phyllaries 0.6-1 mm wide, sparsely villous. Ray florets 11-30, blue to blue-purple, rarely white, tube sparsely hairy apically, lamina 7-12 × 1-2.3 mm, glabrous, eglandular; disk florets yellow, 4.5-5.5 mm, limb funnelform, 3-3.5 mm, glabrous, lobes spreading, narrowly triangular, 1-1.3 mm, often tinged purple-brown, glabrate. Achenes brown, narrowly obovoid, compressed, ca. 4 mm, strigose distally, eglandular, 3- or 4-ribbed. Pappus 4-seriate, straw-colored to brownish, with few bristles barbellate throughout; outermost series of slender bristles or narrow scales 0.7-1 mm; outer series of slender bristles, 2-3.5 mm; inner bristles 3.5-4 mm, acute; innermost bristles 4-4.5(-5) mm, weakly clavate. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.

Alpine meadows on slopes or on rocks, openings in Rhododendron-bamboo thickets; 3300-4600 m. SW Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan [NE Myanmar].