Stems 0. Leaves erect to decumbent; petioles purplish, petiole margins ciliate to hairy; blades 7-38 cm, linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate, margins entire or laciniately pinnatifid, lobes 2-4 pairs, linear to lanceolate, spreading to antrorse, lobules usually inconspicuous to subequaling lobes, rarely lacking, faces glabrous and ± glaucous or sparsely villous. Peduncles ± elongating after flowering, 8-40(-80) cm, glabrate, or apically villous to lanate, eglandular. Involucres cylindric to obconic or campanulate, 2.5-3 cm at maturity. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, green or medially rosy purple, often with purple-black spots, blotches, and/or midstripes, or nearly all black, subequal to unequal, margins ciliate, faces glabrous or villous, eglandular; outer mostly spreading, adaxially glabrous or villous; inner erect, elongating after flowering. Receptacles epaleate. Florets 15-100; corollas usually orange, sometimes yellow, pink, red, purple, or white, tubes (4-)7-9 mm, ligules 4-12 × 1-3 mm; anthers 2-5 mm. Cypselae ± dimorphic, 8-18 mm, bodies cylindric to fusiform or obconic, 6-9(-11) mm, abruptly or gradually tapered to slender beaks (2-)5-10 mm, lengths mostly equaling bodies; ribs strongly ridged, straight, glabrous or scabrous; pappi in 2-3 series, 9-15 mm. 2n = 18, 36.

Plant: Perennial, 10-50 cm, scapose; sap milky Leaves: generally linear to (widely) oblanceolate, (acute to) long-tapered, entire to irregularly lobed in lower 2/3, (sub)glabrous INFLORESCENCE: 1 head, resembling a flower, ligulate, erect, 8-60 mm; base of head tomentose; involucre 12-30 mm; outer phyllaries generally narrowly oblong-lanceolate, long-tapered, < inner phyllaries in fruit, glabrous to soft-hairy, nonglandular Flowers: many, = to > involucre; ligules orange or brick-red, drying purplish or dark pink; corolla lobes generally (0)4-5; stamens 4-5, anthers generally fused into cylinder around style, often appendaged at tips, bases, or both, filaments generally free, generally attached to corolla near throat; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 1-chambered, 1-seeded, style 1, branches 2, generally hair-tufted at tip, stigmas 2, generally on inside of style branches Fruit: Fruit: achene, body 4-9 mm, fusiform; ± 10-ribbed, ribs often minutely hairy; beak sometimes < body; pappus of many fine, simple, white bristles Misc: Meadows, scrub, streamsides; 1500-3500 m.; Jul-Aug