Herbs 1-2 m tall, perennial. Stem solitary, whitish to grayish white, unbranched or apically shortly branched, base with dense long multicellular hairs and sparsely cobwebby, below synflorescences densely and thickly cobwebby to lanate. Leaves papery, abaxially whitish to grayish white, adaxially green and sparsely strigose but along veins densely cobwebby to thickly lanate and with dense long brown multicellular hairs. Basal and lower cauline leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade elliptic to oblanceolate-elliptic in outline, 15-25 × 7-14 cm, bipinnatisect; segments 5-7 pairs; lobes narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate-triangular, with spiny and spine-tipped teeth. Middle and upper cauline leaves pinnatipartite. Uppermost cauline leaves narrowly elliptic. Pseudocephalia 1-3, 4-5 cm in diam. Capitula ca. 2 cm. Phyllaries 17-22, abaxially glabrous; outermost phyllaries oblanceolate, 8-9 mm, unequal, ca. 1/2 as long as involucre, claw margin long ciliate above middle, distal portion brown, broadly elliptic, margin sparsely ciliate, and apex spinulose acuminate; middle phyllaries oblanceolate, margin ciliate, abruptly constricted from maximum width into a 1.4-1.6 cm spiny tip; inner phyllaries elliptic, ca. 1.5 cm, apex dentate. Corolla blue, ca. 1.3 cm, tube outside sparsely gland-dotted. Achene ca. 7 mm, hairs yellowish. Pappus scales linear, ca. 2 mm, proximal half connate. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

Mountain slopes. Henan, Shandong [Japan, Korea].