Perennial herb spreading by stout underground runners, flowering stems soliÂtary, simple, up to c. 1,5 m tall, leafy below, pedunculoid upwards, thinly woolly. RadiÂcal leaves up to 600 x 130 mm, but often only half that or less, linear-lanceolate, elliptic to ovate, more or less abruptly, or sometimes gradually, contracted to a narÂrow or broad and then winged, petiole-like base, apex acute, margins sometimes unduÂlate, upper surface scabrid, lower scabrid, cobwebby or thinly to thickly white-woolly, (3—) 5 (—7)-nerved, nerves strongly raised below, linked by netted veins; cauline leaves similar, sessile, stem-clasping, lower ones particularly sometimes strongly decurrent, becoming smaller upwards and rapidly passing into distant brachts. Heads homo-gamous, narrowly campanulate, c. 4—5 x 2,5—3 mm, very many in a large corymbose panicle. Involucral bracts in c. 6 series, closely imbricate, woolly at base, obtuse, pellucid or subopaque, pale or lemon-yellow, outer sometimes palest brown, equalling the flowers, not radiating. RecepÂtacle with fimbrils at least equalling ovaries. Flowers 16—32. Achenes 1 mm long, glabrous. Pappus bristles many, equalling corolla, scabrid, bases lightly fused and also cohering by patent cilia. Fig. 48: 1.
