Erect, up to 60 cm tall  herb. Stem simple or branched in upper half, ridged and furrowed, sparsely beset with crisp, septate hairs, winged all over till the base of capitula, wings deeply pinnatifid or pinnatisect, lobes more or less semiorbicular, larger below the capitula, deeply dissected. Leaves sessile, glabrous above, glabrous or with crisp, septate, ± curly hairs on nerves beneath; basal and lowermost leaves oblanceolate, pinnately dissected to ca 4/5 of lamina width, pinnatipartite to somewhat pinnatisect, decurrent at the base with rotundate or ovate, dentate, lobulate to deeply divided, lobes ± triangular−ovate, apically attenuate to  strong, 4.5 – 5 mm long, wound−causing spines, margins shortly spinescent; cauline  and upper leaves akin to basal, smaller in size, decurrent. Capitula sessile, usually 3, in clusters borne at apices of branches or rarely solitary terminal, ± globose, 1.5 – 3 cm across, Involucre subglobose. Phyllaries multiseriate, densely arachnoid hairy, linear, ca 1 mm wide; outer and median phyllaries prominently nerved and above plicate to  ± canaliculate, acuminate−subulate spiny and outwardly curved  or recurved at the apices; inner phyllaries almost as long as florets, acute−acuminate. Corolla purple, 14 – 16 mm long, tube 6 – 7 mm long, limb 8 – 9 mm long, oblique, with 3 – 5 mm long unequal lobes. Cypselas pale−brown, 3 – 4 mm long. Pappus white, 10 – 13 mm long, shorter than corolla.