Subshrub, stock stout, woody, pro­ducing vegetative buds, flowering stems several to many from the base, simple below, branching above into the compound inflorescence, up to c. 1 m tall, glandular-setose, hairs red or purple, young parts thinly white-woolly as well, closely leafy, aromatic. Leaves mostly 50—90 x 15—38 mm, slightly smaller on the inflorescence branches, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, apex acute or obtuse, apiculate, base broad, cordate-clasping, both surfaces glandular-setose, margins and midline often white-woolly as well. Heads heterogamous, depressed-globose, c. 12—13 mm long, (20—) 24—30 mm across the radiating bracts, several in an open spreading corymbose panicle, the branches often simple, or branching once or twice, leafy. Involucral bracts in c. 9 series, graded, imbricate, inner much exceeding the flow­ers, glossy, bright golden-yellow inside, golden-brown outside. Receptacle shortly honeycombed. Flowers c. 900—1 200, 125-200 ("female"), 775-975 ("bisexual"). Achenes c. 1 mm long, barrel-shaped, glabrous. Pappus brist­les many, about equalling corolla, tips barbellate, shafts scabrid, bases with patent cilia, cohering or not.