A tall herbaceous biennial plant growing to 1-2.5 m tall. The leaves are lanceolate, 20-40 cm long and 3-6 cm broad, with a row of small spines on the underside of the midrib. The inflorescence is ovoid, 4-10 cm long and 3-5 cm broad, with a basal whorl of spiny bracts. Yellowish flowers that form a head on the end of the stem.

Complementary and Alternative Healing University
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Useful for treating soreness and pain of the loins and legs, osteoporosis, weakness of the feet and knees, and metrorrhagia, in threat of abortion, and vaginal bleeding during pregnancy, abdomen pain, vaginal discharge, hemorrhoids, traumatic injury, fracture, sores, carbuncles, ulcers, trichomoniasis and diplococcus pneumoniae infection.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 268, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.