Perennials, to 150 cm (rhizomes stout, plants not colonial, roots fibrous). Leaves greenish blue (± glaucous), blades elliptic to ovate, usually pinnatifid to pinnately lobed (lobes mostly opposite, ovate to elliptic), ± leathery, bases attenuate to cuneate, ultimate margins entire or coarsely dentate, apices acute, faces usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy (at least abaxially on veins); basal petiolate, 17-60 × 10-25 cm; cauline petiolate or sessile, 8-30 × 5-20 cm (blades among heads not lobed). Heads borne singly or in ± corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries to 4 cm (margins sometimes ciliate, apices attenuate). Receptacles ovoid to conic; paleae (proximally transparent to light brown, distally greenish) 5-8 mm, apices acute to ± rounded, abaxial tips hairy. Ray florets 0. Discs 20-60 × 12-30 mm. Disc florets 200-500+; corollas maroon proximally, greenish distally, 4-5 mm; style branches ca. 1.5 mm, apices acute to rounded. Cypselae 5.2-7 mm; pappi coroniform, to 1.8 mm. 2n = 36.

Flowering summer. Hillside seeps, streams; 2400-2800 m; Colo., Utah.