Annual, erect herb, long-hispid and spinulose, sometimes glabrous, 30–45 cm tall. Leaves are ovate to obovate or pinnatifid, hispid or spinulose beneath, at least along the veins, 4–14 cm long and 1–5 cm wide; they are borne on winged petioles in the lower part of the plant and are sessile in the upper part, with auricles present on the upper leaves. Heads are solitary or arranged in groups of up to nine, borne on long peduncles, and large, up to 4 cm across, with pale yellow ligules. Fruits are linear, compressed, long-beaked achenes with a prominent, hollow, bulbous base, and a pappus composed of about 20 plumose bristles.