Herbs, perennial, 60-150 cm tall, strongly aromatic; rhizome elongated, 7-8 mm thick; stem often unbranched. Lower stem leaves usually withered, 8-12 cm overall; petiole 0.5-2(-5) cm; leaf blade broadly ovate or ovate, abaxially densely gray arachnoid tomentose, palmately or ternately 3-5-sect or -partite, or mixed 7-sect or entire; lobes linear or linear-lanceolate, 5-7(-8) × 0.3-0.5 cm, serrate or not. Middle stem leaves ± sessile; leaf blade palmately or ternately 3-5-lobed or entire; lobes elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, 30-50 × 2-4 mm, base attenuate, margin entire or remotely narrowly toothed, apex acuminate. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts ternately 2- or 3-lobed or entire. Synflorescence a long, narrow panicle; branches short, erect or only narrowly spreading. Capitula sessile or subsessile. Involucre oblong or broadly ovoid, 2-2.5 mm in diam.; phyllaries sparsely gray arachnoid pubescent, glabrescent. Marginal female florets 8-12. Disk florets 10-15, bisexual. Achenes ovoid, ca. 1.2 mm, brown. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 16, 36.

Riverbanks, lakeshores, humid areas, meadows, slopes, roadsides; low elevations to 2500 m. Anhui, S Gansu, N Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, S Nei Mongol, S Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Korea, Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia)].