Herbs 60-100 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect, simple or apically branched, subglabrous. Basal leaves usually withered at anthesis. Lower and middle stem leaves petiolate; petiole 2-11 cm; leaf blade cordate to ovate-cordate, 5-11 × 3-7 cm, papery, abaxially pale green and strigose, adaxially green and sparsely strigose but glabrescent, base deeply cordate, margin dentate, apex acuminate. Upper stem leaves subsessile; leaf blade narrowly ovate-elliptic, base rounded to attenuate, margin entire or denticulate, apex acuminate. Capitula 2 or 3, in a corymbiform synflorescence or sometimes solitary, long pedunculate. Involucre campanulate, 1-1.5(-2) cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, straw-colored, sometimes apically tinged purple, ± villous and glabrescent; outer phyllaries ovate, 3-6 × 2-3 mm, apex acuminate; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate, 8-12 × 2-3 mm, apex long acuminate and 3-6 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 14-16 × 1.5-2 mm, apex acute. Corolla purple, 1.2-1.4 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 7-8 mm, lobes 3-4 mm. Achene straw-colored with dark spots, cylindric, 5-6 mm, glabrous, apex with a short crown. Pappus dirty white; outer bristles 4-7 mm, scabrid to shortly plumose; inner bristles 1.2-1.3 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.
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