Biennial to perennial herb with stout fleshy taproot up to c. 2 cm. diam. Basal lvs ∞, rosulate, subcoriac. to membr., glab. or ± scabridulous, 8-35 × 2-10 cm., obovate, cuneately narrowed to short flat petiole; margins sinuately dentate, not to slightly lobed. Stems stout, c. 7-50 cm. long, ribbed, branched above, latex cop. Cauline lvs few, up to 15 cm. long, about broad-ovate in outline, ± deeply lobed, lobes blunt to sharp, margins spinulose-dentate, base amplexicaul. Infl. subumbellate, bracted at base of clusters of capitula. Capitula c. 1·5 cm. long, 2 cm. diam., on rather stout pedicels. Florets ∞, yellow. Phyll. in several series, 4-12 mm. long, ovate-attenuate, membr., glab. Achenes 3-3·5 × c. 1·5 mm., elliptic, strongly compressed, glab., with c. 15 longitudinal ribs.