Herbs 1-1.5 m tall, perennial. Stem solitary, grayish white, unbranched or apically branched, sparsely cobwebby and strigose, densely cobwebby to lanate below synflorescences. Leaves papery, green to grayish green, concolorous, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely cobwebby. Middle and upper cauline leaves sessile, elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, 7-16 × 4-9 cm, pinnatipartite; segments elliptic-lanceolate to triangular-lanceolate, with spiny teeth. Uppermost cauline leaves similar but smaller. Pseudocephalia 1 or 2, 3.5-7 cm in diam. Capitula 2-2.3 cm. Phyllaries 15-18; outermost phyllaries oblanceolate to long spatulate, ca. 1 cm, ca. 1/2 as long as involucre, claw margin long ciliate, distal portion elliptic, abaxially sparsely strigose and gland-dotted, margin ciliate, and apex spinulose acuminate; middle phyllaries oblanceolate to oblanceolate-elliptic, 1.5-2 cm, abaxially strigose, apex aristate dentate. Corolla blue, tube apically gland-dotted. Achene ca. 7 mm, hairs yellow. Pappus scales linear, connate almost entirely. Fl. and fr. Aug.
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