Main stems stout, creeping and rooting, up to 3 dm. or more long; branchlets ascending, c. 1-3 cm. long, pilose. Lvs c. 3 cm. long, 11-13-foliolate, lflts closely placed, petiole clad in long silky hairs, stipules 3-4 mm. long, trifid. Upper lflts c. 5 mm. long, serrate-dentate, subsessile to sessile, glab. above, densely pilose on veins below, teeth penicillate. Terminal lflt on petiolule c. 1 mm. long. Scapes c. 3 cm. long, appressed pilose, nude or with one or more bracts. Heads c. 1·5 cm. diam. including spines, bractlets linear. Cupules obconic, substipulate, c. 2 mm. long, pilose. Spines purplish, c. 4 mm. long, subequal. Sepals green, c. 2 mm. long, very shortly clawed, obovate-oblong, glab. to papillate above, pilose on midvein below. Stamens 2, anthers purple; stigma plumose.