Herbs (10-)15-20 cm tall, robust. Petiole pale green to grayish purple, unwinged; leaf blade mid-green to slightly brownish green and sometimes with small dark spots, oblanceolate to ± elliptic, (5-)8-15 × 1.5-4 cm, sparsely to densely arachnoid, pinnatipartite to pinnatisect but sometimes undivided, midvein proximally brownish purple, margin dentate, teeth recurved; lateral lobes 4 or 5(-8) pairs, triangular to narrowly falcate, recurved, margin entire or on distal side with a single tooth, apex subacute with tip often elongated into a very narrow variously pointing terminal part; interlobes short and broad, margin ± entire, dentate, or lobulate; terminal lobe triangular to narrowly triangular, margin entire or sparsely denticulate and sometimes distally with a distinct incision, apex acute to subacute, basal segments recurved to subpatent. Scapes brownish green, subequaling leaves, apically densely whitish brown arachnoid but sometimes glabrescent. Capitulum 3.5-5 cm wide. Involucre 0.7-1.2 cm wide, base broadly rounded. Outer phyllaries 17-25, blackish green to olivaceous green, ± not imbricate, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, outermost ones 7-13 × 3-5 mm and 2/3-4/5 as long as inner ones, loosely appressed to erect, unbordered to very narrowly paler bordered, margin sparsely to densely ciliate or subglabrous, distally often suffused brownish purple; inner phyllaries 1.3-1.7 cm. Ligules yellow; outer ligules flat, outside striped gray to grayish purple; floret tube puberulent. Stigmas blackish green. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains regular in size. Achene variable, initially straw-colored brown, later brown, grayish brown, or almost black, 3.5-5 × 1.2-1.4 mm; body densely spinulose and squamulose above, ± smooth to tuberculate below, ± abruptly narrowing into a conic 0.4-1.1 mm cone; beak 6-10 mm. Pappus brownish dirty white, 6-7 mm. Fl. summer. Sexual.
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