Erect, sometimes branched, cultivated herbs to 1.5 m tall; stems stout, sparingly branched, glabrous or scabridulous with sparse hairs, often reddish or purplish; rootstock not seen. Leaves opposite, simple or 1-2-pinnate, the leaflets ovate or elliptical, apically acuminate, basally obtuse or acute, the margins serrate or remotely dentate, to 15 cm long, glabrate, the petiolules mostly short, the petiole slender or stout, sometimes partly winged, basally expanded and with an intra-petiolar ridge. Inflorescence mostly a solitary terminal nodding head on an elongate, naked peduncle but sometimes several clustered into a pseudopanicle. Heads radiate, large, to 15 cm across; involucral bracts in 2 dissimilar series, the outermost ca. 10 mm long, oblong, apically obtuse or acute, patent, thick, many nerved, the innermost slightly longer, narrower, thin, drying dark and scarious, sometimes with a scarious margin; ray florets showy, extremely variable, purple, red, or white (rarely yellowish), ovate to linear, to 5 cm long, the ovary sterile; disc florets mostly yellow but sometimes reddish or purplish, sometimes replaced by fertile or sterile ligulate florets. Achene not seen.
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A daisy family herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 1.5-2 m high and spreads 50-90 cm wide. The leaves have purple tints. They are divided into 3 or 5 segments. The flowers are in clustered flower-heads.
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