Stock rather stout, multicipital, lf-rosettes crowded; lvs 6-8 × 3-4 mm., narrow-ovate to lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, acute, coriac. Capitula 3-6 together on very short peduncles hardly elongating in fr. Phyll. 5-10, linear-oblong, coriac., with a pair of prominent veins close to midrib. Florets 5-10; corolla of disk-florets quadrangular, of ♀ tubular. Achenes 2-3mm. long, glab., 4-angled, the angles produced into minute horns.

2n = 18

Densely caespitose or cushion-formmg herbs. Leaves spreading, stellately arranged, oblong-ovate, conspicuously striate nerved, flat, (2-) 4-8 × 1.5-2.5 mm; apex acute-apiculate; margins glabrous. Capitula subsessile in the rossette, 3-6; peduncle rarely elongated in fruit; bracts dimorphic, 1-3, the lower leaf-like, the upper phyllary-like. Phyllaries 7-11, linear-oblong, acute, with 3 translucent ducts, ± 3 mm long. Outer florets c. 8, (3-) 4-lobed, tubular or narrowly cyathiform, white but soon turning brown when withering, 1 mm long; vascular tissue absent. Central florets 2-4, functionally male, purple, 1.5-2.0 mm long; vascular tissue central; anthers ± 0.7 mm long. Cypsela obovoid, somewhat 4-angled, distinctly ribbed, minutely papillose, 1.5-2.0 mm long; ribs protruding into small horns at apex.