Herbaceous tuberous plant, a species of the genus Liatris (Liatris) of the Asteraceae family (Compound flowers). A perennial herbaceous tuberous plant with a height of usually about 60 cm (sometimes up to 200 cm).
The stems are erect, glabrous or slightly pubescent. The leaves are alternate, sessile, linear-lanceolate, with whole edges.
The flowers are small, only tubular, wide-ringed, fluffy, collected in an amount of 5 to 14 pieces in baskets with 3-4-row hemispherical wrappers, in which the leaves of the outer rows are shorter than the inner ones.
Flowers in inflorescences begin to bloom, starting from the top — among plants with spike-shaped inflorescences, this is very rare. Attract butterflies and bees. Corollas in most cases are lilac-purple (bluish-purple) in color, but sometimes they can be red, pink or white. The fruit is an oblong ribbed achene covered with hairs.
In the conditions of the European part of Russia, the plant blooms for 35-40 days in June—July; the seeds ripen. It is cultivated all over the world as a garden beautifully flowering plant, valued for its original spike-shaped inflorescences.