Herbs annual, 30-150 cm tall, copiously prickly, stellate pubescent. Stems of young plants glaucescent, pubescent with short, simple, often glandular hairs to 0.2 mm; older stems with scattered stellate hairs; prickles yellow, straight, 1-1.8 cm. Petiole 3-8 cm, armed; leaf blade broadly ovate, 10-20 × 3-8 cm, stellate pubescent, prickly along veins, 2-or 3-pinnatifid, pinnatisect near base; lobes irregularly ovate, dentate or sinuate, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescences extra-axillary, 7-11-flowered scorpioid racemes, 4-12 cm; peduncle 5-10 mm. Pedicel ca. 5 mm. Calyx campanulate, divided nearly to base; lobes lanceolate, 5-10 mm, pubescent and prickly as on stems. Corolla yellow, often with an abaxial reddish band on lobes drying purplish, stellate, 1.5-2 × 2.5-3.5 cm; lobes lanceolate, stellate hairy. Filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers narrowly lanceolate, attenuate, 1.2-1.7 cm. Style 1.5-1.7 cm. Fruiting pedicel 1-1.5 cm. Fruiting calyx enlarged, enveloping most of berry, sparsely stellate-hairy, densely prickly, 1-2 cm. Berry globose, 1-1.2 cm in diam. Seeds dark brown, discoid, 2.2-2.8 mm in diam., minutely pitted, reticulately ridged. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.
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