Erect or ascending perennial herb 15–50 cm high, with woody rhizome or rootstock; stems sparsely to densely woolly, with scattered, inconspicuous, glandular hairs. Leaves linear to narrow-oblong, 1.5–5 cm long, 1–10 mm wide, acute to obtuse, mucronate, upper surface green, scabrous and sparsely cobwebbed to glabrescent, lower surface grey- or white-tomentose to woolly, margins recurved. Capitula terminal, usually solitary or 2 or 3 in leafy corymbs, c. hemispherical, 2.5–3.5 cm diam.; involucre c. 10-seriate; bracts white, often tinged pink in bud, woolly toward base; intermediate bracts lanceolate, 10–20 mm long, acute to acuminate, with herbaceous claws. Florets all bisexual. Cypselas 2–3 mm long, 4-angled, glabrous, brown; pappus bristles 80–100, c. free, 6–10 mm long, white, falling in groups. Flowers spring and summer.