Herbs, perennial, rosulate, often acaulescent, sometimes from a stout vertical subterranean rosette shoot with scalelike leaves (cataphylls) below leaf rosette or caulescent with a thick hollow stem. Leaves rosulate or along stem. Rosette shoot inflated at apex to a convex, hollow receptacle or rarely elongated to a hollow cylindric axis, carrying usually numerous, densely crowded capitula. Capitula with 4(or 5) or 15–30 florets; peduncle mostly shorter to rarely longer than involucre. Involucre narrowly cylindric or rarely campanulate. Phyllaries in few series; outer phyllaries mostly 2, linear, similar to uppermost leaves; inner phyllaries 4–15, ± lanceolate, subequal in length, connate or distinct in basal part, herbaceous at maturity. Receptacle naked. Florets yellow, sometimes basally blackish, more rarely white. Achene subcylindric, subfusiform, obcolumnar, or narrowly obconical, subcompressed, with 5 mostly rather slender and sometimes weak main ribs and 1–3(or 4) secondary often ± subequal ribs in between but otherwise smooth, inconspicuously or rarely apically conspicuously acutely papillate, apex ± truncate or rarely shortly beaked. Pappus whitish to strawcolored, often apically grayish, bristles stiff, coarse, scabrid, and usually ± caducous.

from: Shih & Kilian in Wu & al. (2011: 342–343)A