Erect, branched herb to 3.5 m tall; twigs strongly angled and pubescent, soon glabrate, terete and finely striate. Leaves alternate, to 20 cm long, often 3-7-lobed more than halfway, the margins often minutely callose-denticulate, darker and sometimes scabridulous above, softly tomentose beneath, the venation elevated and reticulate beneath; petiole broadly winged to the base, basally auricled. Inflorescence a large, many-headed cymose panicle to 30 cm across; peduncles and rachis puberulent, soon glabrescent, sharply angled when young, soon terete and finely striate; bracteoles linear, those near the heads minute, scalelike, resembling the bracts of the involucre. Heads mostly radiate, small, 6-7 mm tall, 4-5 mm across; involucral bracts in 2-3 graded series, appressed, ciliate, dorsally pubescent, apically-acute; paleas enfolding the flowers, scarious, apically acute, pubescent; ray florets few, ca. 7 mm long, the corolla limb deeply lobed, the tube pilose, the ovary ciliate, laterally compressed, stipitate, the pappus of two strigose awns; disc florets ca. 6 mm long, tubiform, the limb glabrous, the tube pilose, constricted medially, the anthers auriculate, dark, the appendages dark, the style branches slender, minutely appendaged, the style base slightly expanded, sessile on a large, orange nectary, the ovary stipitate-fusiform, laterally compressed, ciliate, the pappus of two awns as long as the corolla tube. Achene body black, 5 mm long, with scattered brownish hairs, not tuberculate, broadly winged; pappus of two strigose awns ca. 2 mm long.
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