Herbs (5-)15-60 cm tall, perennial. Stems solitary or few, erect, apically branched, covered with fibrous lacerate remains of petioles at base, wingless or narrowly winged; wings entire or dentate. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 1-5 cm; leaf blade narrowly obovate, narrowly ovate-elliptic, or linear, 4-20 × 0.5-7 cm, lyrate, pinnately parted, pinnatisect, or undivided, both surfaces green and glabrous. Middle and upper stem leaves sessile, narrowly elliptic to linear, undivided, margin entire or basally dentate. Capitula few to numerous, in a corymbiform or paniculiform synflorescence, shortly pedunculate. Involucre tubular to campanulate, 4-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 4-6 rows, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; outer phyllaries ovate to narrowly ovate, ca. 3.5 × 1.5 mm, appendage widened, herbaceous, and with a cartilaginous mucro; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 7-10 × 1-1.8 mm, appendage red, widened, membranous, and denticulate. Corolla purplish red, 1-1.5 cm, gland-dotted, tube 7-8 mm, limb 6-8 mm, lobes 3-4 mm. Achene blackish brown, cylindric, 2-3 mm. Pappus pale yellowish brown; outer bristles 2-3 mm; inner bristles 7-9 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

River and lake shores, rock fissures near moist places, saline lowlands, saline and alkaline soils, salt and alkaline marshes; 700-1300 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].