Perennials, 40-60 cm, cespitose, eglandular; with cormoid, woody caudices. Stems 5-10+, ascending to erect (brown), glabrous or sparsely strigose distally. Leaves (grayish green) firm, margins entire; basal withering by flowering, sessile, blades (1-3 nerved) elliptic-lanceolate, 20-40 × 10-20 mm, bases attenuate, margins usually entire, rarely remotely serrate, piloso-ciliate, apices acute to obtuse, faces piloso-scabrous; proximal cauline withering by flowering, sessile, blades oblanceolate, 20-30 × 5-13 mm, reduced distally, bases rounded, subclasping, margins entire, scrabrous, apices acute to obtuse, cuspidate-mucronate, faces glabrous or moderately strigose or ± scabrous; distal sessile, blades oblong-lanceolate, 15-25 × 4-6 mm, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, white-spinulose, faces glabrate to moderately strigose or ± scabrous. Heads in open, paniculiform arrays (1-5+ per branch). Peduncles glabrous or sparsely strigose, bracts oblong-lanceolate, grading into phyllaries. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 6-11 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, outer broadly lanceolate, flaring distally , inner linear-lanceolate, subequal, outer foliceous, bases (tan) ± indurate, margins long-piloso-ciliate, green zones foliaceous (outer), apices sometimes purplish, acute (outer) to acuminate (inner), faces glabrous or sparsely short-pilose. Ray florets 13-15(-36); corollas rose-purple, laminae 8-13 × 1-2 mm. Disc florets 16-34(-48); corollas pink turning purple, 4.5-7.5 mm, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats (sometimes thinly puberulent), lobes triangular, 8-13 mm. Cypselae tan to light brown, obovoid, not compressed, ± 3 mm, 5-8-nerved, faces glabrous; pappi tan, 3.5-6 mm. 2n = 10, 20.

Flowering Oct-Nov. Prairies, oak woodlands, pine-oak scrub, fields, roadsides; 0-500 m; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Miss., Tenn., Tex., Va.