Cephalaria pungens is a herb that lives for a number of years. It has a root-like stem that is horizontally situated under the ground or a carrot-shaped storage organ, 203 mm long. Stem is slender, upright, 1.0-1.5 m high, unbranched, round or 6-sided, hairless. Lower leaves are very variable,  up to 230 mm long, 50 mm wide, both surfaces hairy; margins toothed, hairy, simple; leaf stalk 9–120 mm long, hairy, eventually turning into a very conspicuous middle vein of the leaf. The upper leaves, opposite, 1 or 2 pairs, also very variable, some simple with long teeth on the margins to deeply divided into segments, to long and narrow, 40–105 mm long, 3–10 mm wide; leaf stalk 15–50 mm long, toothed.

The flower stalk is branched, hairless. Flower heads almost globular, but flattened on the end near the flower stalk, 20–40 mm in diameter. Flowers heads are made up of many individual flowers that are tubular, 7–11 mm long, 2 mm wide, those on the margin of the head are usually bigger than those on the inner part of the head; each flower has 4 parts at the top of the tube, cream-coloured, white, or pale yellow, hairy outside, hairless inside. Fruits are small, with fine hairs, 4 mm long.