Erect herb, very spiny, 0.6–1.8 m high; stems branching, white-tomentose, glabrescent and reddish, persistently dark-setose at least near the base.. Leaves pinnatisect, spiny; basal leaves oblanceolate in outline, 33–42 cm long, 10–14 cm wide, with 6–8 pairs of subopposite lobes and a terminal lobe, the lobes in turn pinnately lobulate and lanceolate, the terminal one attenuate, base narrowed into a long, basally expanded petioloid base bearing reduced lateral lobes gradually diminishing to spines at the very base; stem leaves lanceolate in outline or (more distally) broadly ovate, 1.5–22 cm long, 1.5–12 cm wide, with 2–4 pairs of triangular to lanceolate lateral lobes and a terminal lobe; all leaf margins with marginal spines, apices strongly spine-tipped, green and glabrous above but for midrib and main veins, silvery white-tomentose beneath except for the ± glabrescent midrib and main veins.. Capitula 18–20 mm long, densely packed in spherical globose synflorescences 2.5–4 cm in diameter, usually long-stalked and with a few reduced reflexed bracts at the base; phyllaries purple, green or golden, 5–18 mm long, with hooked cilia, apex laciniate.. Corolla white (rarely magenta-pink), tube 4–5 mm long, lobes 4–6 mm long, anthers exserted, blue-purple, style purple.. Achenes columnar, 10–10.5 mm long, densely ascending-pilose; pappus of numerous connate ciliolate scales ± 1 mm long.
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