Dipsacus pinnatifidus Steud. ex A.Rich.

Perennial herbs 0.6–3 m. high.. Stems erect, usually stout, angular and bearing small prickles on the angles, rarely terete and smooth, glabrous throughout or with the lower internodes pubescent.. Leaves sessile, 5–20 cm. long, lanceolate, rounded below, toothed or pinnatipartite, with the midrib and sometimes the secondary veins aculeate beneath, usually glabrous; bases of the upper stem-leaves sometimes connate; lateral shoots with much smaller and less divided subpetiolate or sessile leaves.. Terminal inflorescences of one to several heads on aculeate peduncles resembling the stems, often more densely aculeate and pubescent beneath the globose 2.5–4(–4.5) cm. diameter head; lateral inflorescences frequently developed on older plants, more contracted, with heads 2–3 cm. in diameter.. Involucral bracts spreading, foliaceous, attenuate, from half the length of to slightly exceeding the head.. Bracts of the receptacle chartaceous, acuminate, spine-tipped and very variable in size, especially in the length of the pubescent spiny tip.. Involucel pubescent, becoming 3–4 mm. long in fruit with a narrow sinuate membranous limb when mature.. Calyx cupular, 1–1.5 mm. long, shallowly 4-lobed, pilose.. Corolla white or cream, 6–15 mm. long; tube sparingly pubescent without; lobes glabrous, subequal.. Fig. 1.

In montane grassland.