Perennial, with several or single, upright or ascending, 20 – 50 (-70) cm, sulcate, whitish hairy, often purplish tinged stems from horizontally creeping, c. 1 cm thick rootstock. Leaves with short winged petiole to almost sessile, oblong-ovate to almost broadly elliptic rotund, 5 – 18 x 3 – 10 cm, rachis without lobules, very sparsely hairy and green above, densely greyish-white arachnoid beneath, bipinnatisect into obliquely patent, oblong primary lobes with lanceolate, 4 – 5 x c. 2 cm, acute-acuminate secondary segments; middle stem leaves auricled at the bases; uppermost in the floral region linear-lanceolate, entire or unipinnatisect. Capitula heterogamous, sessile or very short peduncled, narrowly ± campanulate, 3 – 4 x 2 – 3 mm, erect to ± patent, solitary or 2 – 3 together in dense glomerules, in narrowly spicate-racemose, up to 15 x 2 – 3 cm panicle with short, erecto-patent, 2.5 – 4.5 cm long branches. Involucre 4-seriate, phyllaries arachnoid hairy outside, purplish tinged; outermost ovate, 1.75 – 2 x 1 – 1.25 mm, narrowly membranous margined, acute; inner ones oblong-elliptic, c. 3 x 1 mm, obtuse, broadly scarious hyaline margined. Receptacle glabrous, ± hemispherical. Florets 20 – 38, usually purple-brown tinged, all fertile; marginal florets 5 – 8, with filiform, c. 1.25 mm long, 2-dentate corolla and long exserted style branches; disc-florets 15 – 30, with narrowly campanulate, c. 1.75 mm long, 5-toothed glandulose corolla. Cypselas brown, c. 1.25 mm long.