Herbs to 1.5 m tall, perennial. Stem solitary, grayish white, unbranched or branched up to twice, sparsely cobwebby to lanate and strigose, densely so under synflorescences. Leaves leathery, abaxially grayish white and densely cobwebby to thickly lanate, adaxially green and densely gland-dotted. Lower and middle cauline leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade oblanceolate, 15-20 × 2-8 cm, pinnatipartite or pinnatifid; segments elliptic, with triangular, spiny, and spine-tipped teeth. Upper cauline leaves similar but sessile, gradually decreasing in size upward, semiamplexicaul. Pseudocephalia 1 to few, 4-5 cm in diam. Capitula 2-2.5 cm. Phyllaries few; outermost phyllaries narrowly oblanceolate, 5-6 mm, unequal, ca. 1/4 as long as involucre, distal portion broadly elliptic and margin long ciliate; middle phyllaries oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 0.8-2.5 cm, distal portion of margin shortly ciliate, apex spinulose acuminate; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic, ca. 1.2 cm, apex cleft and awned. Corolla blue, tube outside gland-dotted. Achene ca. 5 mm. Pappus scales ca. 1 mm, connate almost entirely. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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