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Leaves subsessile; mid-cauline leaves up to c. 15 x 4 cm., oblanceolate, acute at the apex and attenuate to the base; lower leaves smaller, obovate-oblanceolate, obtuse at the apex; upper leaves oblong-oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic, decreasing in size up the stem; margins subentire or serrulate; lamina thinly hispid on both surfaces.
Achenes 1.5–2.5 mm. long, 4–5-sided, tapering slightly to the base, narrowly ribbed on the angles, glandular on the faces, shortly uniformly hispid; outer pappus of numerous brownish linear-lanceolate scales less than one quarter of the achene in length; inner pappus of many sordid or brownish barbellate setae c. 6 mm. long.
Phyllaries numerous, ± densely hispid or pilose, ± ciliate on the margins, obscurely longitudinally ribbed; the outer phyllaries up to c. 6 mm. long, linear, gradually tapering into a long ± pungent apex; the inner to c. 11 mm. long, linear-lanceolate, long acuminate to the apex, ± pungent.
Stems sparsely branched above, leafy, finely ribbed, pilose below, ± strigose above; indumentum of short-stalked flagelliform hairs with an erect or appressed elongate terminal cell; branches up to c. 30 cm. long, young growth often densely reddish-brown strigose.
Capitula few to many, corymbiform cymose at the ends of branches, sometimes subscorpioidly cymose; stalks 0.2–4 cm. long, densely brownish-strigose.
Involucres up to c. 11 mm. long, broadly obconic, widely spreading when mature.
Corolla purple, 6–10 mm. long, tubular below with a slightly expanded limb.
An erect annual herb, up to c. 120 cm. tall.
Receptacle shallowly alveolate.