A perennial herbaceous plant with a thickened branched taproot reaching 1.5 cm in the neck. The stem is single or there are several of them, 20-75 cm or more tall, they are covered with a stiff, protruding pubescence, especially noticeable in their lower part, rarely almost naked, simple or branched, usually with one narrow leaf, rarely with several small leaves.
The leaves, collected in a basal rosette, are yellowish-green, often with brownish-purple veins or spots, reddish or pale on top of the middle vein. The leaf blade is 4-15 cm or more long, 2-5 cm wide, elliptical, ovate, obovate, blunt or somewhat insular at the end, whole along the edge or with several shallow recesses and teeth, covered on both sides with a stiff pressed white pubescence.
The baskets are single at the top of the stem or at the ends of the twigs, sometimes slightly expanded right under the basket, 3-6.5 cm in diameter. The wrapper is oblong, 15-30 mm wide, multi-rowed, its leaves are blackish, lanceolate, with stiff simple hairs, often pubescent along the edge. The flowers are ligulate, 3.5—5 cm long, lemon-yellow, the tongue at the top is five-toothed. The younger is flat, with large sharp colorless scales.
Achenes 5-7 mm long, brown, transverse, with 5 longitudinal ribs, with a long spout turning into a whitish single-row tuft 6-11 mm long.