Caudexes woody, often covered with remnants of old leaf bases. Sterile shoots dwarf; fertile shoots up to 1 m tall or more, ridged and glabrous below, sparsely villous and purple above. Leaves on sterile shoots rosulate, 20-25 × ca. 2.5 cm, glabrous, pinnatilobate, with spiny, simple or compound teeth; petioles fusing to form a deep sheath 8-15 mm; lower cauline leaves similar, in whorls of 3 or 4(or 5); upper cauline leaves also similar but smaller. Inflorescence of 6-8 whorls of numerous flowers; lower 3-5 whorls separate, upper 3 or 4 confluent; involucral bracts 3 or 4 per whorl, broadly ovate-lanceolate, up to 8 × 2 cm, spiny, prominently net-veined, upper bracts smaller; involucels subcylindrical, villous, 4-9 × 2.5-4 mm, with 9-12 teeth. Calyx glabrous to villous, with a large tuft of hairs at base, tubular-campanulate, 3-6.5 × 2-4 mm; limb 2-lipped; lips deeply bifid, apex acute or apiculate, often spinose. Corolla yellow or greenish yellow; tube villous, 25-30 × 1-2 mm; limb 2-lipped; upper lip 2-lobed, lower one 3-lobed, median lobe of lower lip 5.5-10 × 3.5-6 mm. Stamens with filaments 2-3 mm, with a tuft of hairs below anthers; staminodes minute, cordiform. Style slightly longer than stamens; stigma disk-shaped. Achenes convex on adaxial side, rugose on abaxial side, with very deep longitudinal furrows. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.
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