Annual, erect, up to 100 cm tall, laxly to densely appressed, arachnoid hairy herb. Stem simple to ± paniculately branched in upper half, undulately−winged, wings ca 5 mm broad, lobed, lobes triangular, with ca 10 mm long spines, spinulose at the margins, capitula bearing shoots  often  wingless, elongated. Leaves thinly arachnoid−hairy above, densely cobwebby hairy beneath, basal oblong−obovate, up to 40 cm long, up to ca 15 cm wide, sinuately pinnatifid to pinnatisect,  lobes rotundate−triangular; cauline  leaves gradually smaller upwards,  pinnatifid to pinnatipartite, lobes with U−shaped sinuses and mostly 2−4−fid into broadly triangular lobules. Capitula 2 – 5 in  clusters or occasionally solitary subsessile,  2−2.5 cm long, 10 – 15 mm across, rotundate  or  ± truncate, borne at top of spinulose  or spineless branches. Involucre cylindrical or oblong−campanulate, up to 20 mm long, cobwebby hairy to glabrescent. Phyllaries  5−7−seriate, adpressed to slightly recurved, outer ovate to lanceolaete, 7‒8 mm long, ca 2.5 mm wide, median akin to outer, 10‒12 mm long, 2‒2.5 mm wide, keeled in the upper half with midrib extending into a prominent spine, minutely ciliate on margins; inner phyllaries  somewhat scarious, ca 1.75 times longer than  median, oblong to linear, espinose, faintly 3−ribbed in the upper half, acuminate. Corolla purple or pink, 11 – 17 mm long, limb subequally lobed,  lobes 4 – 5 (−6) mm long. Cypselas compressed, smooth, (3−) 4 – 5 mm long, 1.5 – 2 mm wide. Pappus 10−11 mm long, brownish tinged, shorter than corolla, scabrid. 

Two subspecies are recognized in our region.