Annual or short-lived perennial, glabrous, glaucous, lactiferous herb, 10–50 cm tall and occasionally up to 100 cm, usually with a single stem corymbosely branched in the upper part of the plant. Leaves form are pinnately to bipinnately and irregularly lobed, 2–10 cm long and 0.5–3 cm wide, with white cartilaginous margins and form a basal rosette. Cauline leaves are sessile, smaller, and similar in shape to the basal leaves but amplexicaul and prominently auriculate. Fruits are heteromorphic achenes: the outer achenes are 5-ribbed, rather compressed yet columnar, and densely papillose-pubescent, whereas the inner achenes are glabrous, columnar, greyish-white, and a not 4-lobed base.