Perennial herb 0.6–1 m high; stems densely white-woolly throughout, but proximally dark purple with dark hairs.. Leaves spiny, pinnatisect, 4–40 cm long, 1–18 cm wide, base amplexicaul-auriculate, lobes and lobules triangular with sharp pungent spines, thinly arachnoid-pubescent with scattered glandular hairs above, densely woolly beneath.. Capitula 40–45 mm long in globose synflorescences 4–7 cm in diameter; stalks of synflorescence 0–4 cm long; phyllaries oblanceolate, 10–34 mm long, the outermost hispid and ciliate, ending in a laciniate tuft.. Corolla white, tube 8–14 mm long, glandular-hairy, lobes 7–10 mm long.. Achenes cylindric, densely appressed-hispid with ascending hairs, 9–10 mm long; pappus of numerous basally connate scales 1–2 mm long, ciliolate.
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