Herbs ca. 90 cm tall, perennial. Stems ribbed, unwinged, ± densely brownish hirsute. Leaves concolorous, greenish, abaxially with short brown bristles along veins but otherwise glabrous, adaxially sparsely to densely bristly and rough. Lower cauline leaves sessile, oblanceolate, ca. 22 × 9 cm, pinnatifid; segments ca. 7 pairs, subtriangular, often 1-or 2-lobulate near base, fringed with spinules, apex with a long spine. Middle and upper cauline leaves similar but smaller, base amplexicaul. Capitula few, corymbose. Involucre hemispheric, ca. 6 cm in diam., hirsute. Phyllaries in ca. 6 rows, 3-4 × 0.1-0.2 cm, lacking wings and scarious appendage, abaxially brownish hirsute with dense long rigid bristles, basal portion lanceolate to linear, apical portion subulate. Corolla not seen. Achene brownish, ca. 4 mm, with 1 stria on each side. Pappus bristles brownish, ca. 1.4 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug.