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A perennial herb with clumps of stems up to 60 cm tall from a woody stock, stems simple or branching above to carry several heads corymbosely arranged, glandular-puberulous, leafy. Leaves sessile, rigid, up to 7 x 0.3 cm, linear, the upper distant, tending to become bracteate, apex acute, spinescent, margins revolute, beset with slender spines up to 3 mm long, spines also on the upper surface near the margins, upper surface otherwise glandular-puberulous or glabrous, lower surface white-felted, sometimes hidden by the revolute margins. Heads up to c. 8 cm across the expanded rays (var. subulata), c. 5 cm (var. wilmsiana), generally solitary in var. subulata, several corymbosely arranged in var. wilmsiana, but the distinction is not absolute. Involucral bracts linear, c. 1 mm broad, tip and margins spiny, glandular. Rays and disc golden yellow. Achenes c. 3 mm long, turbinate, villous. Pappus scales 4-6 mm long, lanceolate, acute (var. subulata) or up to 2 mm long, obovate-oblong, obtuse (var. wilmsiana).
