Herbs 15-40 cm tall, perennial. Caudex stout, branched, apically lanate tomentose. Stems several, erect, divaricately branched in apical half. Lower and middle stem leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade elliptic, 5-10 × 1-2 cm, pinnately lobed or pinnately divided, both surfaces grayish green and arachnoid floccose; segments narrowly elliptic to linear, margin sinuate. Upper stem leaves sessile, elliptic to linear, gradually smaller upward on stem, undivided. Capitulum solitary at end of branches. Involucre cylindric, [0.8-]1.2-1.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 6 rows, appressed, sparsely arachnoid floccose; outer phyllaries ovate, ca. 3 × 1 mm, apex acute; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate, 5-7 × 1-2 mm, apex spiniform-acuminate; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate, 10-14 × 2-3 mm, apex long acuminate. Corolla purple, 1-1.4 cm, tube 3.5-7.5 mm, limb 2-3 mm. Achene cylindric to obconic, 4.5-6.5 mm, minutely glandular, apically sparsely spinulose-tuberculate. Pappus bristles barbellate, 5-10 mm, not connate into a ring, persistent. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Sandy steppes, rocky slopes, scree slopes; ca. 1500 m. N Xinjiang (Burqin) [Kazakhstan].