Dipsacus lushanensis C. Y. Cheng & Ai; D. tianmuensis C. Y. Cheng & Z. T. Yin.

Herbs, biennial or perennial?, up to 1.5 m tall. Roots not fleshy. Stems often branched, 4-6-ridged, with retrorse spines on ridges. Basal leaves rosulate, long petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, pinnatisect or undivided. Cauline leaves opposite, long petiolate to subsessile; leaf blade elliptic-ovate to elliptic, 8-25 × 3-10 cm, abaxially spiny-hispid, adaxially hispidulous, pinnatisect or pinnatifid, rarely undivided; segments 2- or 3-paired; terminal lobe much larger. Capitula terminal, globose, 1.5-3.2 cm at anthesis and in fruit; involucral bracts linear, spiny-hispid; bracts obovate, 9-11 × 4-5 mm, hispidulous, rostrum 3-5 mm, lateral sides spiny-hispid; involucels 4-ribbed, 5-6 mm, white villous, 8-dentate at apex. Calyx cup-shaped, ca. 1 mm, 4-lobed, white villous. Corolla pink, purple-red, or purplish, 5-8 mm, outside villous. Stamens slightly exserted. Achenes oblong-cuneate, 4-angular, ca. 6 mm, glabrous. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Sep-Nov.

Grassy slopes, roadsides; below 2600 m. Anhui (Qingyang, Shucheng), Chongqing (Chengkou, Wushan, Wuxi), E Gansu (Pingliang, Yuzhong), Hebei, Henan, Hubei (Xianfeng), Hunan (Cili), Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, N Sichuan (Barkam, Songpan), W Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].