Perennials, 1.5-25 cm (becoming colonial); taprooted or fibrous-rooted, stoloniform branches persistent (1-3.5 cm), lignescent, bearing leaf tufts at tips, usually not retaining old leaf bases. Stems erect to ascending or decumbent, glabrous proximally, strigose on distal ¹ / 2 , minutely glandular near heads. Leaves basal (persistent) and cauline; basal blades oblanceolate to oblanceolate-spatulate, 50-760 × 1-11 mm, margins usually pinnately 3-5-lobed (sinuses reaching nearly to midveins), sometimes entire to dentate and mixed with lobed, faces glabrous or sparsely strigose, eglandular; cauline blades linear, gradually reduced distally, margins entire. Heads 1-4. Involucres 2-4.5 × 3.5-7 mm. Phyllaries in 3-5 series, moderately hirsute to hirtellous, minutely glandular. Ray florets 22-38(-46); corollas white, drying pink to lavender or blue, often with abaxial lilac midstripe, 4-7 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 1.6-2.8 mm (throats slightly indurate and inflated). Cypselae 1-1.5 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 7-15(-19) (persistent) bristles.