Perennials, 100–200 cm; creeping roots. Stems 1, erect, (dark maroon), glabrous; branches several to many, stiffly ascending, distally nodding. Leaves: blades elliptic, 10–50 × 5–20 cm, 1–2 times pinnately lobed or divided, lobes lanceolate to ovate, main spines slender to stout, 3–10 mm, faces glossy green, glabrous; basal present at flowering, petiolate or winged-petiolate, divided nearly to midveins; proximal cauline winged-petiolate; mid and distal sessile, progressively reduced, less deeply lobed, bases auriculate-clasping; distalmost linear or lanceolate, bractlike, very spiny. Heads many, nodding, borne 1–few at branch tips, collectively forming open, paniculiform arrays. Peduncles 0.5–15+ cm. Involucres (excluding spreading tips) broadly ovoid to hemispheric or campanulate, 2–3 × 2–3 cm, glabrous. Phyllaries in 8–10 series, strongly imbricate, (dark maroon, drying dark brown or blackish), ovate or lanceolate (outer) to linear-lanceolate (inner), abaxial faces with poorly developed glutinous ridge; outer and mid bases appressed, margins entire, apices spreading to reflexed, elongate, ovate to lanceolate, 5–20 mm, flattened, ciliolate, adaxially minutely villous with septate trichomes, spines slender, 1–3 mm; apices of inner flexuous, entire. Corollas rich rose-purple, 20–26 mm, tubes 4–5 mm, throats 7–10 mm, lobes 10–11 mm; style tips 2–2.5 mm. Cypselae brown, ca. 5 mm, apical collars not differentiated; pappi (brown), 18–20 mm.
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