General: Perennial herb from a branched creeping rhizome; stems stout, erect or ascending, several, branched, moderately or more usually long-hairy with flattened hairs, sometimes reddish, 20-60 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves well-developed and larger than the stem leaves or reduced or lacking, rather thick with an expanded, clasping base, 2-3 times pinnately cut, the ultimate segments with indistinctly winged axis of the inflorescence and blunt or rounded tips; stem leaves similar, smaller, alternate, 5-20 cm long, 2-5 cm wide.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, several, terminal on the branches in a short, flat-topped inflorescence; involucres 4-6 mm tall; involucral bracts lanceolate to oblong, firm except for the papery margins and tip; ray flowers yellow, few; disk flowers yellow, 5-toothed, glandular.
Fruits: Achenes squared off at the top, 5-angled, ribbed, glandular-dotted; pappus a minute, somewhat lobed crown.
