Robust, strongly hispid and scabrid perennial 30–70 cm high, rootstock swollen, woody; stems annual, unbranched or with few stiff erect branches, densely covered with robust, conical-based bristles 1–3 mm long. Leaves sessile, often decreasing in size upwards, linear to linear-oblanceolate, 3–14 cm long, 0.3–0.8 cm wide, usually tapering at base and widened at extreme base, entire, revolute, acute or broadly acute to obtuse, with bristles above and on margin like the stem, whitish-tomentose beneath. Capitula terminal on main stem and branches, solitary, showy, 2–3(–4) cm diameter, without distinct leafless stalk; involucre obconical, ± 4–5-seriate but outer phyllaries intergrading with uppermost reduced leaves and leaf-like, free for most of length, linear to awl-shaped up to 20(–23) mm long, 1.3 mm wide, long-setose on margin and inner surface, acute and spine-tipped, reddish-tomentose outside, inner phyllaries membranous, awl-shaped, 12–17 mm long, 3 mm wide at base, acute, margins minutely toothed; receptacle with deep pits each surrounded by united erose scales up to 2 mm long. Ray florets yellow, often purplish-tipped outside, tubular for ± 1/3 length, 16–25 mm long, 0.7–1 mm wide, with 2–3 apical teeth, glabrous. Disc florets yellow, lobed for 1/6–1/4 of their length, 6–8 mm long, lobes linear, rounded, ± 1.5 mm long, minutely papillose. Achenes narrowly turbinate, 4–6 mm long, densely long-hairy throughout length, hairs of varying length, at least some as long as pappus; pappus uniseriate, free, of ± 10 pale brownish-hyaline oblong-lanceolate scales 4–6 mm long, fimbriate at apex.