Annual, hairy to almost glabrous, up to 1.2 m tall, erect herb with branches from above the base. Leaves ovate-oblong, 2-3-pinnatisect into linear-lanceolate, 3 – 6 mm long ultimate segments. Peduncles up to 7.5 cm long, upwardly thickened in fruit. Capitula radiate, (2-) 2.5 – 4 (-5) cm across. Outer phyllaries ovate, 4 – 6 x 2 – 2.5 mm, acute, inner oblong-lanceolate to somewhat elliptic-oblong, 7 – 8 x 2.5 – 3 mm, obtuse with hyaline or scarious margins and apices. Receptacle hemispherical, 10 – 15 mm wide, chaffy all over, paleae oblong-spathulate, 3.5 – 4 x c. 1.5 mm, slightly keeled, abruptly cuspidate with c. 3.5 – 4 mm long, slender acumen. Ray-florets female, fertile, with glabrous corolla tube, ligules c. 18 – 20, elliptic, 7.5 – 12.5 x c. 3 mm, white. Disc-florets yellow, c. 4 mm long, corolla tube glabrous, uninflated in fruit. Cypselas obpyramidate, c. 2 – 2.5 mm long, ± compressed, quadrangular, smooth, with very short entire auricles at the apices.

Fl. Per.: May-August.

Lectotype: Described from Italy, Herb. Linn. 1016.2 (LINN).

Distribution: South and SE Europe eastwards to Pakistan through Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.