Erect perennial herb with rosette of large leaves and one to several branched flowering stems 0.9–3 m high; stems ribbed, pubescent but becoming glabrous on older parts.. Leaves aromatic; basal leaves ovate or elliptic, thin-textured, bullate, short-petiolate, 35–90 cm long, 12–20 cm wide, base attenuate, margins dentate, apex acute and mucronate, scabridulous above, thinly pubescent beneath; cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, 4–25 cm long, 2–12 cm wide (smaller in the inflorescence), base auriculate and semi-amplexicaul, margins dentate with callose tips, apex acute and mucronate, scabridulous above, tomentose beneath.. Capitula 8–13 mm long, heterogamous, in dense terminal leafy corymbs; stalks of individual capitula 2–10 mm long; phyllaries green and dark brown, ovate to linear-lanceolate, 2–10 mm long, < 1.5 mm wide, apex acute, the outer pubescent, the inner ciliate.. Florets dull red or purplish, all tubular; outer florets few, tube cylindric, 3.6–4.8 mm long, lobes 0.3–0.5 mm long; style 4.3–6 mm long, with long branches; inner florets many, tube narrowly infundibuliform with widened base, 4–5.7 mm long, lobes 0.5–0.6 mm long, glandular and sometimes pilose; anthers 2.8–3.3 mm long and at length almost completely exserted and becoming purple with white tails; style purple, 5.3–7.7 mm long.. Achenes cylindric, 1.2–2 mm long, glabrous; pappus 3–4.5 mm long.
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Campanulate flower-heads nearly 1/2 in. long in dense corymbs
Rather large leaves pale-tomentose beneath
A stout soft-stemmed herb 2-10 ft. high