Herbs 20-40 cm tall, perennial, rosulate. Taproot slender. Caudex with residues of old leaf bases. Stem solitary, erect, branched from near base or higher up, sparsely brown arachnoid hairy and somewhat more densely so at bifurcations, distantly leafy. Rosette and lower stem leaves oblanceolate, 4-10 × 1-3 cm, lyrately or runcinately pinnatipartite to pinnatisect, abaxially ± strongly brown arachnoid hairy, adaxially short brown crinkled hairy, base attenuate into a short ± winged petiole-like portion and semiamplexicaul, margin sinuate-dentate; lateral lobes ovate, triangular, or elliptic, apex obtuse to acute; terminal lobe obovate, ovate, or broadly triangular, apex obtuse to acute. Middle stem leaves (if any) ± elliptic, smaller, otherwise similar to lower leaves; upper stem leaves linear, subulate, or bractlike, reduced in size, usually not divided. Synflorescence corymbiform, with to 25 capitula. Capitula with 10-12 florets; peduncle capillaceous, 0.2-2.5 cm, ± brown arachnoid hairy. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 7-8 mm, abaxially glabrous. Outer phyllaries broadly ovate, longest 1-1.5 mm, apex subacute; inner phyllaries 8, adaxially glabrous or only with a few appressed hairs, midvein often subapically crested, margin narrowly white scarious, apex subacute. Anther tube green. Style branches yellow upon drying. Achene dark brown, columnar, 3-3.5 mm, ribs finely spiculate, apex attenuate. Pappus white, 4-5 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.
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