Perennial herb 60-210 cm high; rootstock fleshy; stem solitary or several branched in upper parts. Leaves opposite, sessile or shortly petiolate, elliptic or broadly elliptic, 3-24 cm long, 1-11 cm wide, base subcordate or slightly cuneate, margins entire or undulate, apex obtuse; glabrous or thinly glandular-puberulous, the margins nearly always scabrid; 3-5-veined from base; petiole up to 5 mm long but more often absent. Capitula solitary on long stalks or the upper part of the plant branched so several capitula are close together with small leaves on their branches, resembling a cyme; involucre cup-shaped, 8-18 mm long; phyllaries green, the inner yellow-green, 4-18 mm long, glabrous but ciliate. Florets bright orange, many; corolla 9-15 mm long, glabrous or with pubescent base. Achenes narrowly turbinate, 5.5-8.0 mm long, densely hairy; pappus of setae 2-5 mm long, slightly flattened, neither hairy nor winged (rarely a few slightly winged at base), hooked at apex.
Perennial herb, up to 1.8 m high. Leaves elliptic or oblanceolate, sessile or subsessile. Heads 3-12, terminal on branches. Pappus of 15-20 setae, uncinate and fimbriately winged. Flowers reddish orange.