General: Perennial, 10-40 cm tall; stems numerous, simple, glabrous; caudex branched; taproot stout.

Leaves: Cauline, alternate, simple, elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate, 1-5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, prominently veined, glabrous, margins entire, often with a few hairs; stipules consisting of minute glands or absent; blades sessile or nearly so.

Flowers: Inflorescence an erect, ovoid to cylindric head, 3-10 cm long, flowers numerous; peduncles long, prickly; involucral bracts curving upward, linear, elongate, unequal, the longer ones often surpassing the heads, prickly, the apex spine-tipped; bracts of the receptacle tapering to an acuminate, stout, straight awn that surpasses the flowers; calyx 4-lobed, 1 mm long, silky; corolla 4-lobed, slender, 10-15 mm long, the tube white, the lobes pale purple, pubescent; flowers July-October.

Fruits: Septicidal capsule, 4-6 mm long, 6-9 mm wide, strongly 3-lobed, sparsely appressed-hairy to nearly glabrous; seeds nearly round.

Ecology: Pine forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 1800-2300 m (6000-7500 ft); Coconino, Mohave, Yavapai counties; southwestern U.S.

Notes: The Navajo consider this species to be a life medicine.

Editor: Springer et al. 2008