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Achenes reddish-brown, 4–5 x 1.5–2 mm., ellipsoid, somewhat compressed, not or hardly beaked, broadly-ribbed on the margins or angles, with 1–3 narrower ribs between, minutely hispidulous; pappus several-seriate, copious of fine, white barbellate setae c. 5 mm. long.
Phyllaries 3–4-seriate glabrous green, often brown or purple-tinged towards the apices, ciliate above, spreading with age; the outermost ovate, less than half the length of the inner; the innermost up to c. 11 mm. long, lanceolate-lorate, ± cucullate in bud.
Flowering stalks erect striate much-branched glabrous, or sparsely setulose below; branches mostly simple up to c. 35 cm. long, divaricate-ascending, glabrous, bracteate.
Capitula precocious, numerous, subsessile or stalked, solitary or in clusters of 2–4 spaced along the branches; capitula stalks up to c. 3 cm. long, glabrous.
Florets c. 5 per capitulum; corollas yellow, 11–15 mm. long, the tube narrowly cylindric and puberulus above; ligule 8–11 x 2.5–3.5 mm., lorate, glabrous.
Involucres cylindric 8–10 x 2 mm. at time of flowering, increasing to c. 12 x 3 mm. in fruiting capitula.
A subscapose perennial herb up to c. 70 cm. tall, from a semi-woody fusiform-turbinate rootstock.
Synflorescences paniculate, diffuse.
