Herbs, perennial, 30-80 cm tall (specimens incomplete); rhizomes long, slender. Stems erect, simple, flexuous, sometimes branched in upper part, finely striate, purplish, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves cauline, gradually reduced upward, long petiolate (petiole to 7 cm); petiole purple, base hyaline-auriculate, clasping; blade abaxially pale green, adaxially green, shiny, abaxially glabrous, minutely stipitate glandular in pits, adaxially scabridulous near margin, base cordate, margin coarsely serrate, sparsely ciliate, midvein and main lateral veins prominent abaxially, apex long acuminate, mucronate; lowest leaves (not seen) withered by anthesis, sometimes marcescent, blade oblong; lower to upper leaves ovate, 6-11(-16) × 2.5-7 cm; synflorescence leaves petiolate (petiole to 1 cm), lanceolate, 2-4 × 0.2-0.8 cm, base cuneate, margin serrulate or entire. Capitula to 130 or more, in terminal paniculiform-corymbiform synflorescences; peduncles 7-10 mm, sparsely to moderately strigillose, minutely stipitate glandular; bracts lanceolate, entire. Involucres cylindric-campanulate, 3-5 mm; phyllaries 3-or 4-seriate, unequal, green, ca. 1 mm wide, glabrous, minutely stipitate glandular, resinous, margin narrowly to broadly scarious, erose, midvein pronounced, ± translucent, apex rounded to obtuse or acute, erose, purplish, ciliate; outer phyllaries ovate, 1.5-2 mm; middle phyllaries oblong, 2-3 mm, base hardened; inner phyllaries oblong, 4-5 mm. Ray florets 8-15, tube strigillose, lamina white, 4-5(-6.5) × 1-1.5 mm, eglandular; disk florets yellow, ca. 7 mm, tube base flared, tube apex and limb base strigillose, limb campanulate, ca. 3.5 mm, lobes spreading, recurved, narrowly triangular, ca. 3 mm, eglandular. Achenes (immature) oblong, slightly compressed, 2.5-3 mm, 4-ribbed, strigillose, eglandular. Pappus (immature) 3-seriate, straw-colored, of barbellate bristles; outer bristles few, slender, ca. 2 mm; inner bristles 3.5-4 mm, tapering; innermost bristles ca. 4.5 mm, weakly clavate. Fl. and fr. May-Dec.