Erect herbs 0.5–3 m high; stems striate, glabrous or with a mixture of cobwebbed hairs and sessile glands. Basal leaves broad-ovate, to 60 cm long, 35 cm wide, apex acute, base truncate to cordate, margins finely and irregularly toothed, upper surface sparsely hairy, lower surface tomentose; cauline leaves similar but smaller. Capitula globose in bud, c. 20 mm diam., becoming hemispherical in fruit, in racemose clusters; sessile or on peduncles to c. 2 cm; involucral bracts glabrous or cobwebbed, shiny green and gold. Florets purple or white; corolla about as long as involucre. Cypselas 5–8 mm long; pappus bristles numerous, 1–3.5 mm long. Flowers summer–autumn.
Known in Victoria from a few widely scattered sites in the south, usually in moist, disturbed habitats.
