Platycarpha glomerata (Thunb.) Less.

Perennial herb, up to 0.6 m high; stemless, with stout, fleshy, underground runners. Leaves flat on ground, radiating from white, silky, woolly root crown, elliptic in outline; tapering to broad petiole-like base, pinnatisect; coarsely and deeply toothed, teeth spinose; cobwebby above at first, later glabrous; white-felted below. Capitula sessile, crowded; involucral bracts glumaceous, in few-many rows. Receptacle flat, paleate. Florets bisexual, fertile; corolla purple; tube widened above, glandular-hairy. Anthers with ovate to lanceolate, apical appendage. Style linear below, terete above; branches short, oblong. Pappus of narrow, acuminate scales. Cypselae ribbed, glabrous.