Plant: biennial herb, 0.5-2.0 m tall; STEMS angled, furrowed, striate, prickly on the angles, branched above Leaves: glabrous except for numerous swollen-based prickles on the midrib beneath; basal leaves shortly and inconspicuously petiolate, oblong to oblanceolate, obtuse or acute, entire to crenate, in a rosette, dying early in the second season; cauline leaves lanceolate, sessile, connate at the base forming a cup, 10-30 cm long; lower cauline leaves crenate to serrate; upper leaves entire, often ciliate INFLORESCENCE: an erect, ovoid to cylindric head, 3-10 cm long, terminating long naked peduncles; involucral bracts prickly, unequal, curving upwards, often surpassing the heads, sometimes foliose but more frequently stiff and narrow; involucel bearing a straight awn Flowers: calyx silky, 1 mm long; corolla slender, pubescent, 10-15 mm long, the tube white, the lobes 1 mm long, purple Fruit: 4-angled, with appressed hairs and persistent calyx, 5 mm long Misc: Fields and roadsides; 2100-2550 m (6900-8400 ft); Jul-Oct REFERENCES: Laferriere, Joseph E. Dipsacaceae. 1994. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27, 201-202.