Annual, subsucculent and lactiferous herb, 10–30 cm and up to 70 cm tall, with erect, branched stems. Leaves are variable in size, with lamina spatulate to oblanceolate in outline, deeply pinnately lobed, with lobes irregularly dentate to pinnate-lobed and arranged in a basal rosette with basal leaves in the rosette being often more finely dissected than upper leaves but often disappear in older plant. Cauline leaves are thick and subsucculent. Heads are large, up to 4 mm across, solitary on axillary branches, and nodding in bud, with an herbaceous involucre and yellow ligules 15–20 mm long. Fruits are yellowish-brown, ribbed achenes with a prominent silvery indument, truncate below the pappus disc, which is composed of 4 mm-long cottony pappus.