Bushy perennial herb, 10–50 cm high, with a fleshy taproot and a rosette of leaves; stems glaucous, densely dichotomously branched and slightly succulent, glabrous, sometimes called spine-tipped.. Leaves all close together near the base of the plant, sometimes some small cauline leaves present higher up the stem, glaucous, pinnatilobed with linear rachis and lobes, 3–12 cm long, the segments 0.2–0.5 cm wide, base half-amplexicaul, margins entire or denticulate, lobes 0.5–3 cm long, apex mucronate, glabrous.. Capitula many, each solitary and terminal on its branch of the dense, divaricate cyme; branches of the inflorescence stout and stiff; involucre cylindric to conical, 11–15 mm long; phyllaries grey-green, the outermost sometimes reddish, ovate and 2–7 mm (outer) or lanceolate and 11–15 mm long (inner), margins broad-hyaline, apex acute or obtuse and slightly ciliate, otherwise glabrous.. Florets < 20; corolla yellow or lemon-yellow, tube cylindric, 7–8 mm long, ligule 7–10 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide.. Achenes pale brown, cylindric, 4 mm long, not beaked, ?ribbed; pappus white, 9–13 mm long, of mixed hairs and setae.
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