Roots ± lignified, up to 2 cm in diam. Caudexes thickly covered with brown fibrous remnants of old leaves, up to 3 cm in diam. Flowering stems to 50 cm tall, terete, or furrowed, glabrous below, white hairy above, often purple. Leaves on sterile shoots rosulate; petiole long and narrow; blade linear to linear-lanceolate, up to 40 × 1.5-4 cm, pinnatifid; segments usually 3-5-fid; lobules spinose apically, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; cauline leaves on flowering shoots in whorls of (3 or)4-6, similar but smaller. Inflorescence 8-10 cm, compact, of many whorls; involucral bracts (3 or)4-6 per whorl, connate basally, forming a cup-shaped structure, apex linear or linear-lanceolate, with lateral spines and tapering into a robust spine; involucels cylindric, 6-13 mm, toothed, usually pilose, rarely subglabrous, with many sessile and a few stalked glands, teeth usually 8-10, apex tapered to a terminal bristle or spine, 1 or 2 longer than others. Calyx tubular or campanulate, 7-12 mm; tube 4-5 mm, usually densely pilose and glandular inside; limb 2-lobed; lobes spreading, white or lavender, deeply divided, 4 lobules apically rounded or spinose. Corolla pink or white, ca. as long as involucel, subtubular; limb 4-lobed. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube; staminodes inserted at base of corolla tube. Style ca. as long as corolla tube; stigma disk-shaped. Achenes 4.8-5.5 × 2.8-3 mm, plano-convex, obliquely truncate, surmounted with persistent and enlarged calyx. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.
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