Glabrous herb from a stout taproot, to 60 cm tall. Leaves dimorphic; blades of basal rosette linear-oblanceolate, rounded at apex, cuneate at base, 10-16 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide, serrate; upper blades opposite, sessile, oblanceolate, often tripartite, apiculate at apex, acute to obtuse at base, 2-3 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, spinulose-serrate. Flower heads dense, bracteate, cylindrical, ca 1 cm long, subtended by 5 or 6 leaflike bracts greatly exceeding the heads; flowers 5-parted, white, minute, sessile, congested, subtended by a bracteole; bracteoles narrow, exceeding the fruit; sepals widely separated, ovate, mucronate at apex, +/- equaling petals; petals ca 0.5 mm long, refolded inward; stamens nearly twice as long as styles, shed with corolla after anthesis; styles 2, ca 1 mm long, somewhat spreading, exserted earlier than stamens. Fruits +/- globose, ca 2 mm long, conspicuously muricate. Croat 8672.