Herbs, perennial, 50-130 cm tall; rootstock 1.5-2.5 cm thick, woody, upper parts puberulent or glabrescent, strongly aromatic. Sterile stems 5-30 cm, leaves clustered at apex; leaf blade spatulate, 3.5-8 × 1-3 cm, pinnately lobed, toothed, apex rounded. Basal and lower stem leaves ± sessile; leaf blade oblong-obovate to broadly spatulate or flabellate, (3-)4-6(-8) × (1-)2-2.5(-3) cm, puberulent or glabrescent, obliquely pinnatipartite or -cleft from apex to center, few serrate apically. Middle stem leaves: leaf blade spatulate, cuneate, or narrowly spatulate, 2.5-3.5(-4.5) × 0.5-1(-2) cm, obliquely partite or cleft and few serrate at apex or lobes linear. Uppermost leaves 3-cleft or entire; leaflike bracts elliptic, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate. Synflorescence a ± narrow panicle, 15-20 × 3-15(-20) cm panicle; branches almost horizontal or obliquely patent, 3-20 cm. Capitula many, nodding, shortly to long pedunculate. Involucre ovoid or subglobose, 1.5-2.5 mm in diam.; phyllaries glabrous, outermost ovate, very narrowly white scarious on margin, apex acute. Florets 12-15(-20), yellow. Marginal female florets 3-8(-11); corolla narrow, 2-toothed. Disk florets 5-10, male. Achenes dark brown, 0.8-1 mm, obovoid. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov. 2n = 18, 36, 37.

Forest margins, waste areas, shrublands, hills, slopes, roadsides; low elevations to 3300 m. Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, E and S Liaoning, S Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, E Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, E Russia, Thailand, Vietnam].