Perennial dwarf shrub, 0.6-0.9 m long; prickly, robust, sprawling, densely leafy, glabrous. Leaves recurved, linear-lanceolate, margins strongly revolute, bristly, pungent. Capitula radiate, several-to many-flowered, solitary, sessile, terminal on main and side branches; inner involucral bracts unarmed, outer ones armed. Ray florets neuter; yellow. Disc florets bisexual, fertile; yellow. Flowering time Aug.-Oct.? Cypselae oblong-ellipsoid, smooth.
Like C. squarrosa but to 90 cm, glabrous, leaves recurved, shorter, to 10 mm long.