Plants perennial. Rhizomes long creeping, subterranean, brown. Fruiting stems 5-10 cm tall, densely white lanate, with scale-shaped alternate purple-violet bracteate leaves. Basal leaves appearing after anthesis, long petiolate; petiole 5-15 cm, white lanate; blade orbicular-cordate, 3-12 × 3-14 cm, abaxially densely white tomentose, palmately reticulate veined, margin undulate, unequally toothed. Capitula solitary, terminal, 2.5-3 cm in diam., nodding (or drooping) before and after anthesis. Involucres campanulate, 1.5-1.8 cm at fruiting; phyllaries 1- or 2-seriate, linear, white villous, glabrate, sometimes black glandular hairy, apically obtuse, often purple tinged. Ray florets female, many seriate, yellow, radiate; stigma 2-fid. Disk florets few, functionally male; corolla tubular, 5-lobed; anthers sagittate at base; stigma capitate, usually sterile. Achenes cylindric, 3-4 mm. Pappus white, 1-1.5 cm.

The immature capitula and leaves of Tussilago farfara are used medicinally for relieving coughs and improving breathing; the plants are also used as honey plants and are widely cultivated in medicinal gardens in China.

Wet places, forest understories, valleys; 600-3400 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia; N Africa, SW Asia, W Europe].