Perennial herb to 90 cm tall, but in the north often acaulescent (see note); stems from a large woody rootstock, branched or unbranched, ribbed, araneose with white tomentum and glandular-setose.. Leaves spiny, pinnatisect to (bi-)pinnatipartite, ovate or obovate in outline, 8–45 cm long, 4–25 cm wide, segments linear or lanceolate, much reduced towards the base of the leaf, strongly spine-tipped, dark green with thin tomentum and densely hispid-setose above, white-tomentose beneath and hispid on the midrib.. Capitula 27–35 mm long, in globose terminal synflorescences 6–9 cm in diameter, with a few strongly reflexed bracts at the base; basal bristles copious; phyllaries lanceolate with a wider central part, abruptly narrowed and then expanded into a tuft of barbellate setae with a central longer spine, 4–22 mm long, minutely ciliate on the margins.. Corolla white or rarely very pale blue, tube 7.5–11 mm long, minutely glandular and usually pilose, lobes 7–9 mm long.. Achenes cylindric, 9–10 mm long, closely ascending-pilose; pappus of narrow fimbriate scales 1–3 mm long.
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