Annual or perennial, erect, stout, robust herb; stem striate, glandular pubescent; leaves alternate, ovate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, margins coarsely serrate, rather membranous, base tapering into the petiole, more or less pubescent on both sides; heads homogamous, many-flowered in axillary or terminal, panicle or subcorymbose cymes; involucres ovoid, globose or hemispheric; involucral bracts in many series, outer bracts linear, broad with purple tips, herbaceous, longer than inner ones; florets all bisexual, fertile, equal, corolla, tubular, slender, narrowly, 5-lobed, purple; anther bases obtuse; style arms subulat; achenes very small, 10 ribbed or striate, black, pubescent on the ribs, glandular between grooves; pappus biseriate, outer rather longer, shining, reddish, flattened deciduous; inner very short, rigid and paleaceous.