Lower surfaces often have a powdery white or purplish film. Newly initiated leaves sometimes pubescent. Seldom flower the first year. Stems erect, hollow, ridged, branched only in the upper portion of the plant. Lower stems leafy.
Upper stems can be glabrous or glandular-hairy.
Terminal lobe typically longer, broader than lateral lobes. Margins with small spiny teeth. Upper leaves sessile, often unlobed. Lower leaves short-petioled, lobed. Vertical roots can penetrate soil to a depth of 2 m and produce new shoot buds to a depth of 0.5 m.