Perennial herb 0.3–3 m high, erect, single-stemmed; stems with interrupted spiny wings, sparsely setose.. Leaves sessile, pinnately lobed with 5–13 lobes, spiny, ovate to elliptic, the distal ones smallest and lanceolate, 3–38 cm long, 1–22 cm wide, with spines 2–6 mm long terminating the lobes and their lobules, with few short weak marginal spines in between, scattered setose above and setose on the veins beneath or rarely araneose beneath, ± glabrescent.. Capitula homogamous, in dense terminal globose clusters; involucre campanulate-turbinate, 19–28 mm long, arachnoid; phyllaries many (60–71), multiseriate, the outermost half reflexed, ovate or lanceolate, 4–21 mm long, margins with a few minute teeth or cilia, apex spinescent, glabrescent; receptacle with setae 2–3 mm long.. Florets 23–36 per capitulum; corolla purple, tube 11–17 mm long, lobes 3.5–4.5 mm long.. Achenes slightly curved, compressed to somewhat inflated, 4–4.5 mm long, glabrous; pappus of setae 10–22 mm long.
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