Onopordum deltoides Aiton, Hort. Kew. 3: 146. 1789; Carduus atriplicifolius Fischer ex Hornemann; Centaurea atriplicifolia (Fischer ex Hornemann) Matsumura; Cirsium ficifolium Fischer; Rhaponticum atriplicifolium (Fischer ex Hornemann) Candolle; Serratula atriplicifolia (Fischer ex Hornemann) Schultz Bipontinus; S. atriplicifolia var. excelsa Makino; S. deltoides (Aiton) Makino; S. deltoides var. palmatopinnatifida Makino; S. pungens Franchet & Savatier (1878), not Poiret (1805); Synurus atriplicifolius (Fischer ex Hornemann) Iljin; S. excelsus (Makino) Kitamura; S. hondae Kitagawa; S. palmatopinnatifidus (Makino) Kitamura; S. pungens Kitamura; S. pungens var. giganteus Kitamura.

Herbs 0.7-1.5 m tall. Rootstock stout. Stem solitary, stout, erect, ribbed, branched or unbranched, basally densely felted to glabrescent or glabrous. Leaves abaxially grayish white and densely felted, adaxially green, asperous, and setulose. Basal and lower cauline leaves with narrowly winged petiole to 34 cm; leaf blade cordate, ovate, broadly ovate, ovate-triangular, or hastate, 10-26 × 12-20 cm, base cordate, sagittate, or truncate. Upper cauline leaves gradually smaller upward, sessile or shortly petiolate, ovate, elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, margin toothed to spiny. Capitula several. Involucre 3-6 cm in diam., densely and fluffily cobwebby to glabrous. Phyllaries in 13-15 rows; outer and middle phyllaries lanceolate, 7-23 × 3-4 mm, patent to reflexed; inner phyllaries longest, linear-lanceolate, 2.3-2.5 × ca. 0.2 cm, sometimes purple. Corolla ca. 2.5 cm, tube ca. 9 mm. Achene brown, narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 7 mm, apex truncate. Pappus bristles brown, 1.5-2 cm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct. 2n = 26.

Forest margins, forests, meadows; 500-2200 m. Anhui, Chongqing, S Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, N Hunan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, E Shandong, S Shanxi, NE Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].