Japan Flora: Gray-green biennial with white short-appressed pilose hairs; stems 50-100 cm. long, erect, branched; radical leaves ovate-cordate, obtusely toothed and incised, long-petiolate, withering before anthesis; cauline leaves 5-10 cm. long, pinnatisect, cuneate at base, long-pcti- oled, the upper leaves gradually smaller, often entire, lanceolate or linear; flowers few, dense, 12-15 mm. long, the bractcoles usually shorter than the calyx, spinelikc; calyx-teath short spine-tipped, ascending in fruit; corolla rosc-colorcd; nutlets black, subcuneate, acutely 3-angled, slightly compressed, truncate at apex, glabrous. July-Sept.
Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu. Ryukyus, Formosa, Korea, and China.