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Sturdy biennial or perennial rosette herb, the solitary flowering stem 0.6–2.4 m high, woody at base, unbranched except for the inflorescence; stem pubescent and scabrid. Leaves of two kinds: radical leaves petiolate, the petiole 5–10 cm long, the blade elliptic or oblanceolate, 30–60 cm long, 7–12.5 cm wide, base cuneate and decurrent, margins coarsely and irregularly dentate, apex acute, scabrid above with tubercle-based hairs, pubescent to tomentose beneath; cauline leaves smaller and diminishing in size upwards, the proximal sessile, the more distal with cordate, auriculate and semi-amplexicaul base, otherwise similar to radical leaves, 2–32 cm long, 1–19 cm wide. Capitula 5–9 mm long, heterogamous, in fairly dense terminal corymbs arranged in their turn in large leafy corymbs or panicles; stalks of individual capitula 1–3 mm long; phyllaries linear-lanceolate, 2–5(–8) mm long, acute, the outer pubescent, the inner ciliate. Florets yellow; outer florets few, tube filiform, 3–3.6 mm long and distally glandular, lobes 0.2–0.4 mm long and glandular, style 3.2–4.2 mm long; inner florets many, tube narrowly infundibuliform with a slightly widened base, 3.3–4.2 mm long, lobes 0.4–0.5 mm long and glandular, anthers 1.7–1.8 mm long, style 4–5 mm long. Achenes cylindric, 1.2–2 mm long, sparsely pilose; pappus 2.5–4 mm long.