Annual herb 25–120(–150) cm tall, rarely a short-lived perennial; stems erect, green, often flecked with dull purplish-red, pubescent. Leaves sessile, obovate, broadly elliptic, rhombic or ovate, unlobed or pinnato-lyrately 2–8-lobed, 5–26 cm long, 2–10 cm wide, cuneate or attenuate and slightly decurrent onto an exauriculate petioloid base, margins usually coarsely and sometimes irregularly sinuate-serrate or sinuate-serrato-bidentate, apex obtuse to acute, pilose-setulose, sometimes with purplish margins or purplish-tinged beneath especially on main veins. Capitula few to numerous in dense to fairly lax terminal corymbs, discoid, drooping in bud and at anthesis, becoming erect in flower and fruit; stalks of the individual capitula pubescent; involucre cylindrical or ± so above a somewhat bulging base, 9–13.5 mm long, 3–5 mm in diameter; bracts of calyculus 6–21, purplish or blackish with darker tips, 2–6 mm long, scattered-pubescent or at least ciliate; phyllaries 13–21, usually 21 or less frequently 13, yellow-green or green with purplish or blackish tips, 8–12.5 mm long, scattered-setulose, or rarely glabrous. Ray florets 0; disc florets many, with orange-red or brick-red, rarely yellow corolla-lobes and red style-arms, tube often yellow, corolla 7–12 mm long, glabrous, slender, gradually expanded in upper third, lobes 0.5–1 mm long. Achenes 1.8–2.7 mm long, ribbed, shortly hairy between the ribs; pappus 7–13 mm long.
