Erect herbs or small shrubs to 2.5 m tall; stems terete, faintly striate, densely tomentellous. Leaves opposite; blades thinly papyraceous, broadly ovate, to 15 cm long and 20 cm wide, the base usually truncate or cordate, the margins crenulate-dentate, the apex acuminate, the upper surface dark green, sparsely puberulous to nearly glabrous, the lower surface light green, densely tomentellous, the venation trinervate from base; petioles to 10 cm long. Inflorescence a loose many-headed corymbose panicle, the ultimate branches to 1 cm long, densely puberulous. Heads ca. 4.5 mm high with ca. 50-80 florets; involucral bracts green, ca. 30, imbricate, unequal, in 4-5 series, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, the outer surface with ca. 4-5 striae, densely puberulous, the inner bracts with more narrowly acute tips; receptacle hemispherical, without parenchyma, densely hirsute; corolla white or pink, narrowly tubular, ca. 3.5 mm long, the lobes ca. 0.2 mm long, about twice as long as wide with numerous hairs on outer surface. Achenes ca. 1.5 mm long, mostly glabrous with some glands above; pappus of ca. 30-35 slender some-what scabrous bristles, the apical cells acute.
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