Herbs 15-35 cm tall, perennial. Caudex stout. Stem single, erect, simple or branched from middle or upper third, glabrous or tomentulose/floccose at nodes and below capitula. Basal and lower cauline leaves lanceolate, 10-20 × 4-8 cm, margin membranous and sometimes ± crisp. Capitula solitary to few; peduncle not inflated. Involucre 2-3 cm. Phyllaries 7 or 8, often darkly colored. Ligules purple to mauve. Outer achenes 1.8-2.2 cm; body whitish, straight to ± curved, 2-2.5 mm in diam., tuberculate, with 5 fairly well-differentiated ribs; beak 7-10 mm, stout, apically ± inflated; pappus disk ± tomentulose. Pappus slightly fulvous, 1.5-1.8 cm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Mountain grasslands, stony deserts and semi-deserts; 500-1200 m. Qinghai, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan].