Herb forming large dense patches, parts clad in long villous hairs; stems creeping, up to 3 dm. × 6·5 mm., branches stout, ascending, purplish. Lvs tufted on branchlets. Petiole thin, flat, up to 10 cm. long, widening into membr. sheath ± 4 cm. long; lamina (5)-10-15 × (3·5)-6-9-(14) cm., ± elliptic to obovate in outline, membr., flaccid, pale green, veins evident; suboppositely to alternately 3-4-pinnate to pinnatifid, costa flat; pinnae up to 15 pairs, 2-5 cm. long, rather close-set; ultimate segs 4-5 mm. long, linear, toothed on upper margins, apiculate to hair-tipped. Scapes slender, < lvs, us. with white floccose hairs; bract us. 1, linear, entire or toothed, situated near capitulum. Capitula 6-8-12 mm. diam., receptacle conical. Phyll. 2-3 series; outer subulate from broad base ± clad in long delicate hairs, inner rounded at apex, purple-margined, midrib and pair of lateral veins evident. ♀in 2 series, pedicels very short, corolla dilated at base, minutely 4-toothed. ♂ narrow-funnelform, 5-toothed. Achenes narrow-cylindric to compressed-obovoid, glandular, 2-3 mm., ribs rather weak.

2n = 52

2n = 40

2n = 52

2n = 52

A highly plastic, shortly creeping perennial herb. Rhizomes on soil surface, us. very thick, up to 1 cm diam., green, hard, glabrous to thinly but uniformly covered with tangled woolly hairs; branches single or clustered around flowering nodes, sts repeated several nodes later; leaves 4-8 tufted at the apex, older ones scattered up to 4 cm apart. Short shoots us. absent. Roots largely confined to older stems, up to 1 mm diam. Leaves very variable in size and divisions, 1-2 pinnatifid, 5-20 × 1-6 cm; blade 4-12 cm long, elliptic or broadly so, soft, light green, glabrous to moderately villous especially along rhachis, midrib not raised on ventral surface; pinnae 5-20 pairs, slightly overlapping, cut to rhachis, elliptic; secondary pinnae up to 13 per pinna, most on distal margin, cut to rhachis, simple and narrowly triangular or divided and elliptic; tertiary pinnae 0-6, mostly on outer margin of secondary pinnae, oblong or narrowly triangular; final divisions acute. Peduncles shorter than leaves, 6-12 cm, nude or with one simple or scarcely divided bract, with dense deciduous woolly hairs. Monoecious. Heads ca. 1 cm diam.; surface hemispherical; involucre hemispherical; phyllaries ca. 20 in 2 subequal rows, oblong or elliptic, thick, green, ± hairy when young, with a wide brown scarious margin (or tip only), not growing after anthesis; pistillate florets 90-260 in 3-6 rows, ca. 2.75 mm long, almost straight, yellow-green; corolla twice as long as wide, with equal teeth; staminate florets fewer or equal. Achenes up to 1.9 × 0.8 mm, not compressed, obscurely 4-angled, golden-brown, with a few shallow wrinkles. Probably flowers from spring to autumn.