Herbs, perennial, 35-85 cm tall. Leaves in basal rosette; petiole broadly winged; leaf blade ovate or broadly ovate to orbicular, papery, palmate-pinnate veined, both surfaces gray-white lanuginous, sometimes glabrate, base cordate, margin callose-denticulate, apex rounded, obtuse, or acute. Capitula subsessile, 4-6 clustered, arranged in spikes, 3(or 4)-flowered; involucre cylindric, ca. 3 mm in diam.; phyllaries 5- or 6-seriate, scarious, abaxially apically strigose, outer phyllaries ovate, 2-2.5 mm, inner linear, ca. 1.2 cm. Florets bisexual, chasmogamous and cleistogamous (at different seasons or in same plant). Chasmogamous floret corollas tubular, 1.1-1.7 cm, deeply 5-lobed, lobes unequal, anther appendages truncate. Achenes subterete, ca. 5 mm, ribbed, densely pilose; pappus brownish, 6.5-8 mm. Fl. Oct-Nov. Cleistogamous floret corollas closed, tubular, minutely 5-lobed, 3.5-5 mm, hidden in pappus. Achenes subfusiform, ca. 6 mm, ribbed, densely pilose; pappus dark yellow or dark brownish, 6-7 mm. Fl. Aug-Oct.

● Dense forests, stream banks; 900-3500 m. Chongqing, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.