Annuals, biennials, or short-lived perennials, 20–100 cm. Stems 1–several, often forming rounded mounds, puberulent to loosely tomentose. Leaves puberulent to loosely gray-tomentose, becoming ± glabrous, minutely resin-gland-dotted; proximal leaves petiolate, blades 10–20 cm, 1–3 times pinnately dissected, rosette with central cluster of spines; mid sessile, not decurrent, blades ovate, usually less than 10 cm, narrowly lobed; distal blades linear to oblong, entire to shallowly lobed. Heads disciform, borne singly or in leafy cymiform arrays, sessile or short-pedunculate. Involucres ovoid, 15–20 × 6–8 mm. Principal phyllaries: bodies greenish or stramineous, ovate, scarious-margined, appendages stramineous, spiny fringed at base, each tipped by a stout spreading spine 10–25 mm. Inner phyllaries: appendages truncate, spineless. Florets 25–40; corollas purple, all ± equal, 15–24 mm; sterile corollas slender. Cypselae white or brown-streaked, 2.5–3.4 mm, glabrous; pappi 0. 2n = 20.
