Plants 30–70 cm; in scattered individuals or small clumps, eglandular; rhizomes short, stout, or strong, woody caudices (roots fleshy). Stems 1–3+, erect, coarse, villous. Leaves strongly basal and cauline, coriaceous, margins indurate, entire to remotely spinose-serrate, remotely and obscurely scabridulous, spines indurate-margined or wholly indurate, finely parallel-veined with evident midnerves, apices acute, revolute, indurate, abaxial faces glabrous; basal and proximal cauline persistent (bases ± marcescent when leaves deciduous), petioles scarcely distinct, blades linear (grasslike), 70–350 × 3–8 mm, adaxial faces glabrous; cauline sessile, blades linear to lance-linear, 15–130 × 1.5–7 mm, progressively reduced and more spinose distally, adaxial faces progressively more villous distally. Heads 1–11+, borne singly or in racemiform arrays, branches ascending to erect, stiff. Peduncles ± densely villous, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular distally; bracts 0–7, appressed, lanceolate, bases ± indurate, margins spinose, adaxial faces villous. Involucres campanulo-hemispheric, 9–12 mm, slightly shorter than pappi. Phyllaries 70–140 in 4–5 series, greenish, densely thick-nerved, lanceolate to linear (innermost), unequal, coriaceous, bases indurate and rounded (outer), margins entire, indurate or ± scarious, erose (inner), sometimes sparsely villoso-ciliate, ± densely stipitate-glandular, apices squarrose, green and often purplish-tinged, foliaceous, long-acuminate, adaxial faces villosulous, rarely also sparsely stipitate-glandular. Ray florets 25–60; corollas white or pinkish, coiling, 10–20 × 1–2.1 mm. Disc florets 115–260; corollas yellow, 5.5–7 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes shorter than tubular throats, lobes 0.75–1 mm, erect, lanceolate. Cypselae straw-colored, ellipsoid to obovoid, 2–3.5 mm, ribs 11–13 prominent, glabrous; pappi of (ca. 35) orangish tan (coarse, sometimes clavellate) bristles 7.8–8.2 mm, slightly longer than disc corollas.
