Herbs to 40 cm tall, ?annual, dioecious. Stems erect, unbranched or rarely with up to 10 branches above, unwinged, with sparse long multicellular hairs. Leaves subconcolorous, abaxially pale green and glabrous or very sparsely cobwebby, adaxially green and with sparse long multicellular hairs. Lower cauline leaves withered at anthesis. Middle cauline leaves sessile, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 6-18 × 1.3-2 cm, undivided, auriculate semiamplexicaul, fringed with ca. 3 mm spinules alternating with ca. 5 mm spines, apex acute to acuminate. Upper cauline leaves linear-lanceolate to narrowly linear, gradually smaller upward. Capitula 1 to few. Involucre narrowly ovoid to narrowly ellipsoid, 1.5-2 cm, glabrous. Phyllaries imbricate, in ca. 7 rows, lacking wings and scarious appendage; outer phyllaries triangular, ca. 5 × 1-1.5 mm, tipped with a 1-2 mm recurved to reflexed spinule; middle phyllaries ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 7-10 × 2-3 mm, apex acuminate; inner phyllaries linear to linear-lanceolate, ca. 15 × 2 mm, apex acuminate. Corolla red, ca. 1.7 cm; tube in male florets ca. 8 mm and in female florets ca. 7.5 mm. Achene yellowish, ca. 4 mm. Pappus bristles white, to 1.5 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
Home