Japan Flora: Biennial herb; stems 70-100 cm. long, branched, crisped-pubescent, with spine-toothed wings; lower cauline leaves oblong-lanceolate, 5-20 cm. long, obtuse to acute, decurrent on the winged base, sessile, pinnately cleft to parted, the segments obtuse, toothed, spine-margined, with cobwebby hairs beneath while young, the upper leaves smaller; heads many; involucres campanulate, about 20 mm. long, the bracts 7- or 8-seriate, the outer row gradually smaller, the median row linear-lanceolate, spine- tipped, spreading or recurved at tip; flowers red-purple or
rarely white; achenes oblong, about 3 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide; pappus about 15 mm. long. May-July. Waste grounds, roadsides, and cultivated fields in lowlands.

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu. ^Europe, Caucasus, and e. Asia.