Leaves lanceolate (8–)19–33 cm long, 4–7 cm wide, green, sparsely cottony-hairy; lateral lobes in 2–5 pairs, deltoid and patent; distal margins entire or with a few acute teeth, proximal margins entire, incised almost to the midrib and thus with narrow interlobe areas, terminal lobe rounded triangular to helmet-shaped in outline, sometimes three-lobed, the margins plane; petiole densely striated purple on green, unwinged, midrib densely striated purple on green throughout. Scapes (2–)10–12 cm long at anthesis, 26–34 cm long in fruit, white-woolly in bud, becoming glabrous at maturity except under the capitulum, purple near base grading to green distally. Capitulum c. 3 cm diam.; outer involucral bracts lanceolate 7–9 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, upright to patent or slightly down-curved, narrowly but clearly white-bordered, apices dark, not callosed; innermost involucral bracts linear 12–13 mm long, 1.5–2 mm wide, not callosed. Outer florets with a flat ligule exceeding the involucre by c. 5 mm, anthers with pollen, stigmas greenish-yellow. Achenes fusiform to turbinate 3.2–3.4 mm long, c. 1 mm wide with straight spines less than 0.3 mm long at the apex, smooth to the base, light brown; cone conical 0.2–0.4 mm long; beak 5–8 mm long. Pappus 5–6 mm long. Flowers and fruits Sept.–Apr.
VVP, VRiv. Native to Great Britain, Holland, Belgium and Germany. Currently known in Australia from only two collections at Wahgunyah in north-east Victoria, and from Brunswick East (Melbourne), but almost certainly more widespread.
