Herbs to 1 m tall, ?perennial. Stems erect, sparingly branched above, unwinged, subglabrous. Leaves concolorous, green, surface smooth and glabrous. Upper cauline leaves sessile, ovate-elliptic, broadly elliptic, or obovate, 8-16 × 5-9 cm, undivided, auriculate semiamplexicaul, fringed with 0.5-2 mm spinules and with simple or double teeth, apex acute to obtuse and spinule-tipped. Bracts sessile, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, base auriculate semiamplexicaul. Capitula few, terminal on long branches. Involucre broadly campanulate, 2-2.5 cm in diam., glabrous or sparsely cobwebby. Phyllaries imbricate, in ca. 6 rows, lacking an abaxial resinous gland, marginal spinules, wings, and scarious appendage; outer and middle phyllaries ovate-lanceolate, elliptic, or lanceolate, 12-17 × 2-3.5 mm, apex acuminate and tipped with a short spinule; inner phyllaries broadly linear, ca. 15 × 1.8 mm, apex acuminate and scarious. Florets bisexual. Corolla purplish, ca. 1.8 cm, tube ca. 8 mm. Mature achene unknown. Pappus bristles dirty white, ca. 1.3 cm. Fl. Jul.

● Grasslands, mountain slopes. Guizhou (Fanjing Shan).