Mantisalca salmantica

Erect perennial or biennial, to 1 m high, almost leafless at anthesis; stems much-branched, glabrous above, often sparsely pubescent below. Basal and lower cauline leaves petiolate, oblong in outline, to 25 cm long and 6 cm wide, pinnatifid to sublyrate, scabrous; upper cauline leaves sessile, linear to linear-lanceolate, 1–3 cm long, denticulate or subentire, reducing toward capitula. Capitula ovoid to subglobose, 5–15 mm diam.; involucre 8–20 mm long; bracts ovate, yellowish-green with a black apex and a reflexed apical spine to 3 mm long. Corolla to 25 mm long, purple. Cypselas 3–4 mm long, yellowish with grey markings; pappus 1–4 mm long. Flowers summer.