suffruticose, glabrous or nearly so; branches virgate, leafy below, pedunculoid above and loosely corymbose or panicled; leaves polymorphous, slender, elongate, with strongly revolute margins, either all quite entire or some entire and some sparingly pinnati-partite, or all pinnati-partite, with few and distant, entire or toothed lobes; corymb diffuse, few-headed, simple or branched, the pedicels long and scaly; heads discoid, many-fl.; inv. amply calycled with many subulate bracteoles, of 16–24 narrow, tapering, dark-tipped scales; achenes hispidulous. Very variable in foliage and in the size of the fl. heads, but var. β. seems completely intermediate in character between α. and γ. Stem 2–3 ft. high, erect or diffuse, very pale, terete, with raised striæ, closely leafy below. Leaves 2–3 inches long or more, 1 line wide, the lobes, when present, equally narrow, all with strongly revolute margins and glabrous. Infl. widely spreading. Heads from 3 to 7 lines long, 3–6 lines diameter. Pedicels 1–3 inches long. Calycle 2–3-seriate, of subulate or lanceolate bracteoles. Except for the discoid heads it is very similar to S. umbellatus.
