Erect, up to 75 cm tall herb. Stem  simple or branched, shoots elongated, grooved, winged almost reaching upto the base of capitula, thinly cobwebby hairy or  whitish tomentose, wings ca 5 mm broad, sinuately deeply lobed ending into a triangular spine, lobes toothed. Leaves sessile or shortly petioled, green and glabrous or  thinly arachnoid hairy above, arachnoid canescent or  sometimes sparsely  white−tomentose beneath; spines stout, 1 – 10 (−20) mm long,  basal and lower stem leaves obovate, (5−) 10−30 (−40) cm long and (2−) 5−15 cm wide, pinnately dissected into rotundate, prickly−margined, lyrately pinnatifid lobes; upper cauline leaves sessile, ± decurrent, similar to basal  and  gradually smaller upwards,  spinescent. Capitula 2 – 5 in  clusters  at apices of shoots, rarely solitary terminal subsessile. Involucre ± cylindrical, 15  – 20  mm long. Phyllaries 5 – 7−seriate, erect, glabrous or sparsely arachnoid hairy,  18 – 20 mm long, 2 – 4 (−5)  mm wide, somewhat abruptly spinose at the apices; outer phyllaries  ovate or  triangular−ovate; median ovate or  oblong−lanceolate; innermost  wider than the rest, purplish tinged and obtuse. Corolla purple, 10 – 12 mm long, tube narrow, 4 – 5 mm long, limb 6 – 7 mm long with 3 – 4 mm long lobes. Cypselas 3 – 4 mm long. Pappus white, or dirty white, 10 – 12 mm long

Two subspecies are recognized in our region.