Plants cespitose, sometimes densely so, 2-29 cm; taproots stout. Stems proximally clothed with marcescent leaves, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely scabrous, usually viscid, sometimes eglandular. Leaves basal; narrowly petiolate; blades , 1- or 3-nerved, linear to narrowly oblanceolate or spatulate, 17-90 × 1-7(-12) mm, rigid, attenuate, margins sometimes ciliate (often minutely), viscid-glandular veins conspicuously raised abaxially, apices acute, faces ± scabrous or glabrous, gland-dotted, viscid. Heads 1-2(-4). Peduncles 10-130 mm, smooth and viscid. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric, 8-21 × 6-14 mm. Phyllaries 12-26 in 3 series, 1- (or 3)-nerved (often ± keeled), strongly unequal, outer ovate to oblong, 3-8 × 1.5-4(-7.5) mm , inner oblong, 5.5-10 × 1.5-3.5 mm, proximally indurate, distally chartaceous, green portions about as long as broad, margins scarious, sometimes broadly so, entire, apices obtuse to rounded, minutely apiculate, viscid abaxially. Ray florets 5-15; laminae elliptic to oblong, 5.5-18.5 × 2-6 mm. Disc florets 21-39; corollas funnelform to vase-shaped, 4-9 mm, tubes glabrous or rarely sparsely hairy, lobes 0.7-1.3 mm, ca. ¹ / 8 - ¹ / 6 length of corollas; anthers 1.8-3.5 mm, style-branch appendages subulate to lanceolate, 1.2-2.3 × 0.5 mm, stigmatic lines 0.6-1.9 mm, ¹ / 2 - ³ / 4 as long as style-branch appendages. Cypselae 2-6 mm, lengths ¹ / 2 - ³ / 4 disc corollas, faces sericeous; pappus bristles 60-75, 3.5-7.5 mm, nearly equaling disc corollas.