Main stems stout, creeping and rooting, up to 3 dm. or more long; branchlets ascending, c. 1-3 cm. long, pilose. Lvs c. 3 cm. long, 11-13-foliolate, lflts closely placed, petiole clad in long silky hairs, stipules 3-4 mm. long, trifid. Upper lflts c. 5 mm. long, serrate-dentate, subsessile to sessile, glab. above, densely pilose on veins below, teeth penicillate. Terminal lflt on petiolule c. 1 mm. long. Scapes c. 3 cm. long, appressed pilose, nude or with one or more bracts. Heads c. 1·5 cm. diam. including spines, bractlets linear. Cupules obconic, substipulate, c. 2 mm. long, pilose. Spines purplish, c. 4 mm. long, subequal. Sepals green, c. 2 mm. long, very shortly clawed, obovate-oblong, glab. to papillate above, pilose on midvein below. Stamens 2, anthers purple; stigma plumose.

Stoloniferous perennial; prostrate, trailing stems 2-3.5 mm diam., < 50 cm long; erect stems 1-2 mm diam., 5-15 cm long. Lvs 1-15 cm long; stipules entire or 2-3-fid; leaflets 7-15, conduplicate, obovate (), or oblong (), 3-20 × 2-10 mm, 6-15-toothed, glaucous and glabrous on upper surface, paler and sparsely to densely hairy on lower surface; teeth conspicuously penicillate. Scape 0.5-2 cm long at flowering, 2-7 cm long at fruiting, pilose; capitulum 6-8 mm diam. at flowering, 1-2 cm diam. (including spines) at fruiting; florets c. 40-50 (), or c. 100-130 (); sepals 4; stamens 2; anthers dark red; style 1, white; achene 1. Fr. obconic, c. 3 × 1.5 mm (), or c. 4 × 1.5 mm (), hairy; spines 4, red or yellow, 6-12 mm long, barbed.