Herbs, perennial, 80-150 cm tall, puberulent or glabrescent. Lower and middle stem leaves thickly papery; petiole 2-5 mm; leaf blade ovate, ovate-elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or lanceolate, 9-22 × 2.5-4(-5.5) cm, abaxially gray tomentose or glabrescent, adaxially drying dark, glabrescent, entire, rarely irregularly shallowly lobed or 3-cleft at apex. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts sessile, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate. Synflorescence a ± narrow panicle, sometimes with extra panicles from upper nodes to form broad conical compound panicle; branches to 4 cm, usually less. Capitula usually very closely spaced, sessile. Involucre oblong or obovoid, 2-2.5 mm in diam.; phyllaries glabrous Marginal female florets 4-6. Disk florets 6-8, bisexual. Achenes obovoid or obovoid-oblong. Fl. and fr. Jun-Nov. 2n = 18*.

● Forest margins, roadsides, canyons, riverbanks, shrublands, slopes; 200-1200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, S Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, E Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang.