Annual or perennial herb 30–150(–350) cm tall, erect or basally procumbent and rooting at the nodes with erect flowering branches, or semi-scandent; stems green often streaked or tinged with purplish, red or violet, almost glabrous to densely setulose. Leaves sessile, ovate to broadly ovate, elliptic or obovate, 3–12.5 cm long, 1.5–7 cm wide, base cordate, truncate, cuneate or broadly cuneate and slightly decurrent onto sometimes pinnato-lyrately 2–4-lobed, auriculate or exauriculate, petioloid base, margins sinuate-serrate to sinuate-bidentate or broadly sinuate-lobulate, apex obtuse to acute, finely usually densely pubescent above and beneath, sometimes with purplish midrib. Capitula terminal, solitary or up to 3, discoid, long-stalked, sometimes nodding; stalks of the individual capitula densely glandular-pubescent, sometimes purplish; involucre broadly cylindrical, 7–12 mm long, 5–10 mm in diameter; bracts of calyculus 10–18, lanceolate, 2.5–7 mm long, glandular-setulose and ciliate; phyllaries usually 21, rarely 13, green or yellow-green with dark tips, 6.5–11 mm long, densely glandular-setulose with the hairs sometimes purplish. Disc florets orange, less often orange-yellow or yellow; corolla 6.5–10 mm long, tube glabrous, gradually expanded above the middle, lobes 0.7–1.5 mm long. Achenes 2 mm long, ribbed, shortly hairy between the ribs; pappus 6–9 mm long.
