Japan Flora: Rhizomes stout; stems stout, 1-2 m. long, purplish, cobwebby, branched in upper portion; lower cauline leaves long-petiolate, deltoid, 10-20 cm. long, acute, mucronate, hastate at base, irregularly incised, mucronate­toothed, green above, densely white-woolly beneath, the upper leaves gradually smaller, ovate-deltoid, truncate to cuneate at base, short-pctiolate to sessile; heads rather congested, on stout peduncles; involucres globose, transversely cobwebby, about 3 cm. long, 3-5 cm. wide; bracts many-seriate, the outer gradually smaller, linear-lanceolate, the median 2-3 mm. wide; florets dark.purple; achenes about 6 mm. long, 3 mm. wide, toothed; pappus about 20 mm. long,  brownish.  Sept.-Oct. 

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu.