Plants grayish green. Stem erect, 20-200 cm tall, 4-15 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally and synflorescence white arachnoid-puberulent and shortly yellow pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 5-60 cm, glabrous, narrowly winged, base sheathed; leaf blade ovate-oblong or oblong, 5-45 × 5-35 cm, glabrous, pinnately veined, base cuneate, narrowed into a petiole, margin undulately denticulate, apex obtuse. Proximal stem leaves petiolate; petiole 4-8 cm, glabrous, broadly winged, base enlarged sheathed; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, or orbicular, 8-17 × 6-10.5 cm, glabrous, pinnately veined, base broadly cuneate or rounded, narrowed into a petiole, margin undulately shallowly dentate or irregularly sharply dentate, tips of teeth curved mucronate, apex obtuse. Middle to distal stem leaves sessile, oblong or elliptic, smaller distally, proximal leaves to 17 × 8.5 cm, tubular-amplexicaul or semiamplexicaul at base. Synflorescence racemose-paniculate, ca. 30 cm, rarely proximally branches fewer and shorter, with a raceme; branches 1-3(-7) cm; leaflike and supplementary bracts linear-subulate or filiform, to 1 cm; peduncles 2-4 mm. Capitula numerous. Involucre cupular or campanulate, 6-8 × 5-8 mm, outside glabrous or sparsely white puberulent; phyllaries 6-8(-10), in 2 rows, lanceolate or oblong, 2-3.5 mm wide, apex acute or acuminate; inner phyllaries membranous at margin. Ray florets (4 or)5-7, yellow; lamina narrowly oblong or oblong, 7-10 × 2-4 mm, apex acute or obtuse; tube ca. 3 mm. Tubular florets 10-14(-16), slightly higher than involucre, 6-7 mm; tube ca. 2 mm. Achenes yellowish, cylindric, 4-7 mm. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. Jul-Aug. 2n = 60.

Slopes, grasslands, stream banks, swamps; 2200-2500 m. Xinjiang (Tian Shan) [S Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan].