Branched stout
plant, hollow stems, 2 m or more tall; early plant with leaves in a rosette;
basal leaves about 4 dm long, 1.2 dm wide, pinnately divided, divisions again
lobed and spine tipped; middle and upper cauline leaves shorter, more spiny,
sessile and clasping; uppermost leaves reduced to spiny bracts near the floral
heads; heads solitary or densely clustered; involucre very webby-hairy which
mostly covers the bracts; bracts purplish, spinose, spreading tips, inner
flattened; corolla rose-purple; pappus buff, about 1.5 cm long, shorter
sometimes; moist deep soil of woods; wet meadows and moist woods from sea level
to the mountains.