Plant glabrous, up to 30 cm. Rootstock firm, covered by the brown withered sheath-bases. Stems tufted, erect, little branched, ribbed; lowest internode 10 cm, upper ones gradually shorter. Leaves green, 3-parted, the basal ones incised to ⅔, cauline ones to ⅓-½ but similar in shape and gradually somewhat smaller, the highest simple, oblong. Petiole terete, not winged, thin, that of the basal leaves up to 10 cm, higher up gradually diminishing in length to about nil; blade hardly subcoriaceous, when flattened suborbicular or even broader than long in outline, base broad-cuneate, sharply sett off against the petiole, 1½-2½ by 1½-3 cm; segments ovate, acute, edge with thick-margined, coarse, spiny teeth; nerves and main veins prominent, reticulations not so. Heads 3-4, umbellately clustered together at the nodes and apices of the stems, ½-1 cmpeduncled. Involucral bracts lanceolate, entire or with a coarse spiny tooth on either side and a spiny tip, 1½ by 3 mm, some more coriaceous and larger than the others. Floral bracts in the head mostly absent, in shape and texture resembling the smaller involucral bracts. Flowers white, 1-3 fertile and bisexual, 1-2 sterile, stipitate by the linear aborted ovary. Fertile flowers: ovary obconical, studded with papillae which increase in size apically, ± 1 mm long. Sepals lanceolate, 1⅓ mm long, persistent, pointed. Petals strongly inflexed, sulcate, 4/5 mm high, the inflexed half with a pointed tip and often connected with the erect half by a hymen. Stamens rose; filaments ¾ mm; anthers obovate, ⅔ mm. Styles spreading, recurved in fruit, persistent, 2 mm. Sterile flowers: ovary stalk-like, 1¾ mm; sepals as in the fertile flowers; petals and sexual organs absent a reduced gynoecium excepted. Mericarps separated by a narrow groove, semi-globular, the upper papillae hardened, subspinulose, in section obtusely 5-angled 2½ by 1¼ mm; thickest vittae near the commissure, further one under each rib alternating with faint additional ones.
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