Herbs 35-50 cm tall, perennial. Stems solitary or few, erect, simple or few branched. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 1-2 cm; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly obovate, 2-4 × 1.5-2 cm, pinnately lobed, abaxially grayish white and sparsely tomentose, adaxially green to grayish green and glabrous or sparsely arachnoid; lateral lobes 3 or 4 pairs, narrowly elliptic to narrowly triangular-ovate, margin undulate or serrulate, apex obtuse. Stem leaves few, gradually smaller upward on stem; lower stem leaves similar to basal leaves; upper stem leaves linear to subulate. Capitulum solitary at end of branches. Involucre bowl-shaped, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, appressed, glabrous or sparsely arachnoid, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-ovate, 4-6 × 2-3 mm; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 10-15 × 3-4 mm. Corolla purple, ca. 1.5 cm, tube 4.5-5.5 mm, limb ca. 1 cm, lobes 4-5 mm. Achene obconic, 6-7 mm, gland-dotted, apically spinulose-tuberculate. Pappus bristles white, scabrid to barbellate, to 9 mm, with 2 of inner ones much longer than others, basally connate into a ring, caducous. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.

Montane steppes and meadows; ca. 1900 m. NW Xinjiang (Zhaosu) [Kazakhstan].