General: Perennial herb from a taproot and a short to long, little- to much-branched stem-base; stems erect, simple to much-branched, with stiff, spreading hairs, often also finely glandular and slightly sticky, especially beneath the heads, 5-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves oblanceolate, gradually tapered to the stem-bases, stiff-hairy, sometimes sparsely so, 2-8 cm long, 1-8 mm wide, fewer and soon deciduous in larger forms; stem leaves similar or sometimes lacking, reduced upwards.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, solitary to numerous, sometimes as many as 75, the disks 7-15 mm wide; involucres 4-7 mm tall; involucral bracts sparsely to densely spreading stiff-hairy, subequal to equal, the tips long-pointed, green with brown midveins and sometimes narrow, papery margins; ray flowers 50-100 or more, usually white, sometimes pale pink or blue, 6-15 mm long, 0.7-1.5 mm wide; disk flowers 3-5 mm long.
Fruits: Achenes 2-nerved, sparsely to moderately short-hairy; pappus double, the inner of 15-27 bristles, the outer of well-developed scales, sometimes intermingled with the inner bristles.
