Herbs 40-150 cm tall, perennial. Rhizome horizontal or oblique?, with fleshy fibrous roots. Caudex short. Stems mostly solitary or more rarely few, erect, branched only apically, glabrous, leafy. Basal leaves obovate to oblanceolate, 6-25 × 2-4(-6) cm, undivided to pinnatifid or lyrately pinnatifid, glabrous, base attenuate into a cuneately winged petiole-like portion to 1/3 as long as leaf, margin subentire to sinuate-dentate, apex acute to obtuse; lateral lobes 4 or 5 pairs, triangular, broadly triangular-ovate, or elliptic, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded and mucronate; terminal lobe narrowly triangular, apex long acuminate. Stem leaves elliptic to lanceolate, 5-19 × 2-4(-7) cm, base attenuate into a short cuneately winged petiole-like portion, otherwise like basal leaves; uppermost stem leaves linear to subulate, reduced in size. Synflorescence corymbiform, with few to many capitula. Capitula with 14-20 florets; peduncle slender, usually with stipitate glandular hairs, rarely subglabrous. Involucre cylindric, 7-8 mm. Outer phyllaries 5 or 6, ovate to narrowly triangular, longest 1-1.5 mm, apex acute; inner phyllaries 8, abaxially with or rarely without stipitate glandular hairs on midvein, adaxially glabrous, midvein subapically plane, margin white scarious, apex obtuse to acute. Anther tube greenish to blackish. Style branches yellow upon drying. Achene brown, subfusiform, ca. 3.5 mm, subcompressed, ribs finely spiculate, somewhat more attenuate toward apex than base. Pappus grayish, 4-5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.
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