Herb, 0.6–1.8 m high, spiny, erect to rather sprawling; stems with interrupted wings from the leaf-bases down, thinly araneose and glandular, glabrescent.. Leaves sessile, spiny, pinnatifid, elliptic to oblanceolate in outline, 3–16 cm long, 1–4 cm wide, with 3–6 pairs of (sub-)opposite rounded to triangular lobes, with rather short slender spines terminating the lobes and shorter marginal spines in between, glandular-setose and at first arachnoid-tomentose above, glandular-setose on midrib and veins beneath, glabrescent, occasionally with short superficial spines beneath.. Capitula few in lax terminal cymes, rarely solitary; involucre campanulate, 13–20 mm long; phyllaries many in 5–6 series, the innermost largest, lanceolate to ovate, to 12 mm long, apex spinescent-pungent and recurved or (the innermost) acute, margins pectinate-ciliate distally, otherwise glabrous; receptacle with setae 3–3.5 mm long.. Florets 61–84; corolla white or mauve, tube 10–12 mm long, lobes 4–5 mm long.. Achenes ± 4 mm long, glabrous; pappus of deep brown bristles, 11.5–14.5 mm long, united basally.
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