Ornamental plant. Honey nectar plants.

Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, 0.5—1.5(–3) m, hairy to glabrate, hairs simple and stellate. Stems erect or ascending, glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs both simple and stellate. Leaves: stipules persistent, lanceolate to ovate-triangular, 3–5(–8) × 3 mm; petiole 1/2 to 1 1/2 times as long as blade, pubescent in adaxial groove, otherwise glabrous; blade reniform to suborbiculate-cordate, unlobed or shallowly 3–7-lobed, sinuses to 1/2 to base, (2–)5–10(–14) × (2–)5–10(–14) cm, base cordate to ± truncate, lobes semicircular to oblong, margins crenate, apex rounded to wide-acute, surfaces glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs simple or stellate. Inflorescences axillary, flowers solitary or in 2–4-flowered fascicles, long-stalked. Pedicels 1–2.5 cm, 1–4.5 cm in fruit, much longer than calyx, glabrous or sparsely stellate-hairy; involucellar bractlets distinct, sometimes adnate to calyx in basal 1 mm, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic or narrowly obovate, reticulate-veined, (3–)4–5(–7) × 2.5–4 mm, shorter than calyx, margins entire, surfaces glabrous, sparsely ciliate. Flowers: calyx reticulate-veined, 5–6 mm, to 10 mm in fruit, lobes incompletely enclosing mericarps, stellate-puberulent; petals pink to purple or reddish purple with darker veins, usually drying blue, (12–)16–30(–45) mm, length 2 1/2–3(–4) times calyx; staminal column 5 mm, minutely, retrorsely stellate-puberulent; style 10–12-branched; stigmas 10–12. Schizocarps 7 mm diam.; mericarps 10–12, 2–2.5 mm, margins sharp, not winged, sides thin and papery, with radiating veins, surface strongly to obscurely reticulate-wrinkled, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy. Seeds 1.5–2.2 mm. Flowering from February-March.

Cultivated, Grows in gardens, parks, homes and roadsides.