Japan Flora: Stems 50-100 cm. long, hairy, densely leafy, much branched above; radical and lower cauline leaves elliptic-oblanceolate or oblong, 25-45 cm. long, acute, short-petiolate, pinnatifid, the lobes 8 or 9 pairs, oblong, approximate, spreading, acute, coarsely incised at base, short spine-tipped, often white-variegated above, loosely pubescent to glabrous beneath; cauline leaves very many, 12-18 cm. long, caudate, broadly clasping, the lobes 4 or 5 pairs; heads many, erect; involucres tubular, 1.4-1.5 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. wide, cobwebby and viscid; bracts 6-seriate, the outer short, deltoid, acute, the median oblong, acute to obtuse, scarcely spine-tipped; corollas purple, 15-18 mm. long. Sept.-Oct.
Honshu (Mount Ibuki in Oomi).
var. herbicola Nakai. Larger in all respects. Woods; occurs with the typical phase.