Biennial herb, aromatic when fresh, up to ±1 m tall, stem stout, base up to 10 mm diam., simple below the inflorescence, glandular-setose, the uppermost part and the inflorescence branches thinly white-woolly as well, leafy throughout. Radical leaves wanting at flowering; cauline leaves up to 180 x 65 mm, decreasing in size upwards, elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, uppermost lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate, apiculate, base broad, cordate-clasping, all but the uppermost decurrent in long or short wings, both surfaces glandular-setose, margins often white-woolly as well. Heads heterogamous, depressed-globose, ±(22-)25-32 mm across the radiating bracts, many in a large corymbose panicle, the branches obliquely ascending. Involucral bracts in ±9 series, graded, imbricate, much exceeding flowers, radiating, glossy, bright yellow. Receptacle honeycombed. Flowers 811-1053, 121-226 female, 681-754 homogamous, yellow. Achenes ±1 mm long, barrel-shaped, glabrous. Pappus bristles many, equalling corolla, tips barbellate, bases with patent cilia, cohering or not. Flowering in September and October, fading in November.