Slender erect to spreading annual to biennial herb with simple or sparingly branched, sulcate, nearly glab. stems up to ± 5 dm. tall, us. shorter. Lower lvs crowded, ± 7-15 × (2.5)-5-6 cm., including petiole = or < lamina. Lamina lyrate, membr., glab. or nearly so, us. purplish below, broad-ovate to oblong to obovate in outline. Terminal lobe large, obtuse, shallowly to rather deeply lobulate; lobules rounded, apiculate. Petiole narrowly winged with or without one or more pairs of oblong to broad-ovate lobes, these with coarse rounded apiculate lobules or entire, ciliolate, semiamplexicaul and auriculate at base. Mid lvs similar, ± oblong in outline, more deeply lobed; uppermost narrow-oblong, pinnatifid. Infl. a subcorymbose lax panicle; bracts filiform to linear-subulate, c. 3-5 mm. long. Capitula, often few, c. 9 mm. long; phyll. 10-14, c. 6 × 0·5 mm. with 2-nerved keel, margins broadly scarious. ♀ ± 10-15, occ. bearing staminodes, style-arms glab. or nearly so, corolla filiform, c. 4 mm. long, teeth 4; perfect florets with style-arms sparsely hairy, corolla narrow-funnelform, 5-toothed. Achenes 3-4 mm. long, glab., grooved, narrowed to very short beak. Pappus-hairs fine, white, c. 6 mm. long.
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