Biennials or monocarpic perennials, 100-220 cm; taprooted. Stems 1-several, erect, (hollow), openly branched distally or throughout, thinly arachnoid with fine, non-septate trichomes, glabrate. Leaves: blades elliptic to broadly oblanceolate, 10-40+ cm, pinnatifid ¹/2-²/3 distance to midveins, larger usually with broad sinuses, lobes broad, few lobed or dentate, main spines 2-9 mm, abaxial faces ± gray-tomentose, sometimes ± glabrate, adaxial thinly arachnoid-tomentose, soon glabrescent; basal present or withered at flowering, winged-petiolate; principal cauline sessile, progressively reduced distally, bases auriculate-clasping or shortly decurrent; distal cauline reduced, bractlike, often spinier than proximal. Heads borne singly or few at branch tips, sometimes subtended by clustered, ± leafy bracts, collectively forming ± open, many-headed paniculiform arrays. Peduncles 0-10+ cm. Involucres ovoid to campanulate, 1.5-2.5 × 1.5-3 cm, thinly arachnoid, glabrate. Phyllaries in 6-9 series, imbricate, dark green to brownish, lanceolate (outer) to linear (inner), abaxial faces with narrow glutinous ridge; outer and middle appressed, apices spreading, finely serrulate, spines slender, 1-2 mm; apices of inner erect, ± flexuous. Corollas pale rose-purple, 18-23 mm, tubes 8-10 mm, throats 5-6 mm, lobes 5-7 mm; style tips 3.5-4.5 mm. Cypselae dark brown to black, 4-5 mm, collars very narrow, stramineous; pappi ca. 15 mm. 2n = 32.