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A perennial herb up to 80 cm tall, rootstock stout, woody, creeping, stem simple, glandular, sometimes cobwebby, winged, distantly leafy. Leaves mostly radical, subrosulate, up to 35 x 15 cm, oblong-ovate in outline, apex obtuse to subacute, narrowed to a petiole-like base, coarsely sinuate-pinnatilobate or pinnatifid, lobes up to about 8 each side, margins coarsely toothed, spiny, upper surface thickly beset with coarse bristles, lower glandular-pubescent, stem leaves few, similar to the basal leaves but much smaller and rapidly degenerating into bracts, sessile, decurrent on the stem in long spiny wings. Heads discoid, subglobose, up to 3 cm across, several subumbellately arranged at the stem apex. Involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, up to c. 1 mm broad, tip and margins spiny, minutely glandular, sometimes cobwebby on the backs. Flowers yellow. Achenes c. 2 mm long, turbinate, villous. Pappus scales 7-10 mm long, narrow, acuminate.
Perennial herb, 0.25-0.80 m high; rootstock stout, woody, creeping, stem simple, glandular, sometimes cobwebby, winged. Leaves mostly radical, subrosulate, oblong-obovate in outline, apex obtuse to subacute, narrowed to a petiole-like base, coarsely sinuate-pinnatilobate or pinnatifid, margins coarsely toothed, spiny, upper surface thickly beset with coarse bristles, lower surface glandular-pubescent; cauline leaves few. Capitula discoid, subglobose, several subumbellately arranged at stem apex; involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, tip and margins spiny, minutely glandular. Florets yellow. Flowering time Aug.-Dec. Pappus of narrow, acuminate scales. Cypselae turbinate, villous.
