Stems solitary, rarely 2, erect, purplish red, 10-30 cm tall, 2-3 cm in diam., proximally glabrous, distally purple pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 6-12 cm, purple pilose, base sheathed; leaf blade reniform, 0.7-2.5 × 1-5 cm, glabrous, sometimes abaxially purple, pilose, margin purple pilose, shallowly crenate or lobed; lobes 7-12, with white prominent palmate veins on both surfaces. Middle stem leaves shortly petiolate, base sheathed; leaf blade smaller, reniform. Distal stem leaves ovate or lanceolate, margin sharply dentate, without sheaths. Capitulum solitary, nodding. Involucre campanulate, 1.5-2.8 × 1.5-4.5 cm, outside blackish purple pilose or glabrous, but base hairy; phyllaries 10-14, in 2 rows, purplish red, rarely yellowish white, petaloid, obovate-oblong or broadly elliptic, 0.7-2.5 cm, thin, submembranous, conspicuously veined, margin subentire, ciliate, outside sometimes pilose, apex rounded or rarely acute. Florets numerous, all tubular, purplish red, 6-8 mm; tube ca. 2 mm; styles extending from corolla, slender; style branches blackish purple papillate. Achenes brown, cuneate, 3-5 mm, slightly compressed, apex truncate, with denticulate corona. Pappus white or brown, as long as or shorter than tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Forest understories, forest margins, grassy slopes, scrub, alpine meadows, gravelly areas on mountains; 3200-4800 m. Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW and W Yunnan [NE Myanmar].