Herb with several erect annual stems 20-90 cm tall arising from a perennial woody rootstock; rootstock said to creep and send up shoots at intervals of up to 1 m; stems usually unbranched, erect, densely tomentose with short T-shaped hairs. Leaves sessile or subsessile, green above, silvery beneath, silvery on both surfaces in very young leaves, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or slightly (ob-)ovate, 2-9 cm long, 0.3-2(-3) cm wide, base attenuate to cuneate, margins entire, apex acute or attenuate, sometimes obtuse and apiculate, finely pubescent and ± glabrescent above, with dense appressed tomentum beneath. Capitula in terminal and upper axillary rather congested or open compound corymbiform cymes; stalks of individual capitula densely appressed-tomentose; involucre campanulate, 3-5 mm long, 2-3.5 mm in diameter at flowering time; phyllaries 2-3-seriate, grey-green with purplish tips, lanceolate or ovate, 2-5.2 mm long, acute to obtuse and somewhat fimbriate, tomentose except for the apex. Florets ± 25 per capitulum; corolla mauve to purple, 5-8.5 mm long, lobes 1.5-3 mm long, pubescent with long fine hairs, glandular. Achenes turbinate, 1.8-2.2 mm long, obscurely 5-ribbed (8-10-ribbed fide Lisowski), densely ascending-pubescent; outer pappus of very narrow scales 0.4-1 mm long, inner pappus white, 4-6.5 mm long.
