Subshrubs, 50-80(-120) cm tall, puberulent or glabrescent; branches 8-14 cm, obliquely ascending. Lowermost leaves ± sessile; leaf blade ovate or ovate-oblong, deeply 3(-5)-lobed or entire; lobes linear-lanceolate or -oblanceolate. Middle stem leaves: leaf blade elliptic, 2-3 × 0.8-1.5 cm, abaxially densely arachnoid pubescent, adaxially gray pubescent, ternately 3-partite; lobes linear or linear-lanceolate, 10-20 × 1-2 mm, margin revolute. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts 3-partite or entire. Synflorescence a lax panicle to 7 cm, lower branches to 3 cm, very slender, with flowering branches from upper nodes forming large compound panicle. Capitula shortly pedunculate or sessile. Involucre broadly ovoid, subglobose, or oblong, ca. 2 × 1.5-2 mm; phyllaries glabrous. Marginal female florets 4-8; corolla limb glabrous. Disk florets 5-7, male. Achenes obovoid. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

● Terraces, slopes, dry river valleys, hills, roadsides, forest margins, forest steppes, shrublands; 1000-1200(-2300) m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, NW Sichuan.