Japan Flora: Stems 50-80 cm. long, subscapose, densely leafy at base, loosely $o above, glabrous, the branches cobwebby toward the top; lower cauline leaves thin, large, subrosulate, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 30-40 cm. long, acuminate, ab­ruptly narrowed at base, glabrous and usually white-variegated above, loosely silky beneath, sessile and clasping or short- petiolate, pinnatifid, the lobes about 4 pairs, again pinnatifid or coarsely incised, the spines 3—4 mm. long; upper leaves few, lanceolate to linear, small; heads small, nodding at anthe­sis, the peduncles slender, very long; involucres campanulate- globose, 1.6-1.8 cm. long, about 2 cm. wide, prominently viscid; bracts 7-seriatc, the outer very short, lanceolate or ovate, acute, spine-tipped, the median oblong, appressed; corollas purplish, 15-18 mm. long.  Aug.-Oct. Mountains.

Honshu (n. Kinki Distr.)