Perennial herb, 45–120 cm high, erect; stems 1–4 from a tuberous rootstock, densely leafy, distally glandular-setose, otherwise glabrous.. Leaves bright silvery, narrowly lanceolate, 12–25 cm long, 0.5–1.5 cm wide, base rounded, margins densely ascending pectinate-spinulose, apex gradually attenuate to a pungent spiniform tip, glabrous above, with thin silvery floccose tomentum beneath, glabrescent, with closely set parallel veins.. Capitula 22–28 mm long, in dense terminal ovoid synflorescences 5–6 cm long and 3–4 cm in diameter; phyllaries obtrullate (outermost) or lanceolate, 16–22 mm long, distally ciliate, acute or acuminate, otherwise glabrous.. Corolla white, tube 9–11 mm long with scattered glands, lobes 8–10 mm long.. Achenes fusiform, 8–10.5 mm long, densely ascending-hairy; pappus of membranous laciniate scales 2–3 mm long.
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