A biennial plant, forming in the first year a rosette of lanceolate-linear, hard, prickly-toothed leaves, and in the second year – an upright pubescent stem 30-70 cm tall; baskets at the top of the stem and 2 opposite branches within 3 cm wide, with an involucre, the inner leaves of which are dry membranous, straw-yellow and similar to reed flowers; flowers in a basket are tubular, with a black-purple corolla, dressed in a tuft. Blooms in July-September.
Grows in pine forests, on hillsides.
In folk medicine, a decoction of grass collected during flowering is given to children to drink, fumigated with smoke when frightened.