It is a woolly, spiny shrub growing one half to nearly two meters in maximum height.

The erect stems are white-woolly except for bare stripes at intervals.

The leaves are linear in shape and harden as they age, becoming spiny.

The inflorescence bears two to five flower heads which are each enveloped in five thick phyllaries coated in white woolly hairs.

The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long tipped with a pappus of bristles.