Perennial to 40 cm tall. Leaves: petioles 4 cm long; lamina 3.5 cm long, 2 cm wide. Capitula to 7 mm diam.; outer subtending bracts c. 1.75 mm long, 0.5 mm wide; involucral bracts ovate to oblong, 3.3–4.0 mm long, 1 mm wide, acute; paleae 3.5 mm long, 1.0 mm wide. Ray florets with ligule 3–3.7 mm long, 2–2.5 mm wide. Disc florets 10 or more, 2.5 mm long; anther appendage a triangular scale. Achenes 6–8 mm long, 1–1.3 mm diam., dark brown to black, longitudinally ribbed, with warty transverse ridges which become thickened or rugose. Pappus awns 3 (rarely with a smaller 4th), 2.5–3.0 mm long, strongly reflexed.
It grows in infrequently grazed Dichanthium grassland on basaltic soil, usually in heavy black clay, and is now confined mainly to stock routes.
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