Subshrubs, 18-30(-40) cm tall, with a thick rootstock, gray puberulent or glabrescent. Lowermost leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade broadly ovate or suborbicular, 2-3(-3.5) × 2-3 cm, 2-pinnatisect; segments (2 or)3(or 4) pairs, 3-sect. Middle stem leaves ± sessile; leaf blade 1.5-2.5 × 1.5-2.5 cm; lobules linear, 5-8 × 0.5-1 mm, apex mucronulate. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts 3- or 5-lobed. Synflorescence a conical panicle, lower branches to 4 cm, very slender, often also on well-developed spreading lateral branches forming large, lax panicle. Capitula peduncle 0-5 mm. Involucre ovoid-campanulate or narrowly ovoid, 1-2 mm wide. Marginal female florets 3-6. Disk florets 4-8, male. Achenes obovoid. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

● Dry slopes, roadsides, Gobi Desert margins. Gansu, N Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, N Shanxi.