Robust erect perennial herb, 2 1/2–5 ft. high; stem branched only above, somewhat sulcate and angular, more or less pubescent. Leaves oval or ovate, obtuse or uppermost subacute, submembranous, tawny-tomentose at least beneath, asperulous above, denticulate; upper cordate-auricled, amplexicaul, sessile; lower and radical narrowed at base and petioled, 1 ft. or more long. Capitula campanulate, somewhat turbinate, 1/3 in. long, about 30-flowered, on short unequal pedicels, in a dense branched corymbose terminal cyme 4–8 in. wide. Scales of the involucre multiseriate, unequal, imbricate, acute or subacute, tawny; innermost somewhat caducous, linear, ciliate above, outer successively shorter, more lanceolate and more hairy at the back. Receptacle foveolate, naked, 1/10 in. diameter. Florets all hermaphrodite, yellow. Achenes terete, oblong, about 12-ribbed, with few minute setæ on some of the ribs above, 1/12 in. long. Pappus uniseriate, fulvous, scabrid.
