Annual to perennial, 10 – 80 cm tall, glabrous herb with simple or branched, sulcate stem, leafy to the inflorescence, often purplish or reddish-tinged towards base,. Leaves sessile, basal and lower cauline oblong, 5 – 20 (-25) x 2 – 9 (-10) cm, glabrous-glaucous on both sides, deeply pinnatisect into several pairs of linear-lanceolate, basally constricted, entire or denticulate, acute lobes; middle and upper stem leaves basally amplexicaul, with acute-acuminate projecting auricles, narrowly lanceolate, pinnatisect into entire, somewhat linear to filiform lobes. Capitula 1.5 – 2.5 cm across, on 1 – 2 cm long, mostly glandulose peduncles, borne in corymbose synflorescence. Involucre campanulate at anthesis, 9 – 12 x 6 – 9 mm, mostly arachnoid at base. Phyllaries 25-30, glabrous or thinly glandulose, outer ones narrowly deltoid, 3.5 – 4 x c. 1.5mm, acute, inner phyllaries linear-lanceolate, 8 – 12 x 1.5 – 1.75 mm, subobtuse. Florets with 6 – 7 mm long, apically hairy corolla tube and 3.5 – 4 mm long yellow ligules.. Cypselas light brown, narrowly obovoid, 3.25 – 3.5 x 0.5 – 1 mm, abruptly contracted at base, moderately compressed, longitudinally 3- ribbed on each side, finely and prominently rugose or tubercled between the ribs. Pappus white, setae 6 – 8 mm long, persistent.