E. atrorubens is a perennial herb up to Шаблон:Convert tall with elongate-turbinate roots that are sometimes branched. The stems and foliage are usually hairy with appressed to ascending hairs 1.2 mm long (strigose), rarely some plants are glabrous. The stems are light green or tan and mottled in color. The basal leaves have petioles 0–12(–20) cm long and leaf blades typically 3 or 5-nerved, usually linear or lanceolate, rarely ovate, Шаблон:Convert long and Шаблон:Convert wide; the margins are normally entire.
Flowering occurs in late spring. The flowering stems or peduncles are Шаблон:Convert long ending usually with only one flower head. The flowering "cones" with paleae 9–15 mm long, with the ends red to orange-tipped, usually straight, and prickly-pointed. Ray flowercorollas are purple or rarely pink or white. Discs or cones are ovoid to conic and 25–35 wide and 20–40 mm tall. Disccorollas are 4.5–5.5 mm long with lobes greenish to pink or purple. Seed cypselae are tan and 4–5 mm long with faces finely tuberculate, glabrous. This species has 11 chromosomes.[1]