Annuals, 10-80 cm; herbage bristly and/or soft-hairy. Leaves petiolate (proximal) or sessile; blades green or gray, lanceolate or ovate to elliptic or oblanceolate, 1-10 cm, bases tapering to wings, margins entire or dentate, apices acute, faces ± canescent. Heads borne singly or in paniculiform arrays. Involucres 7-12 mm. Phyllaries green, narrowly lanceolate to linear (margins shaggy-ciliate), apices acute. Ray florets 10-21; laminae 1-2 cm. Disc corollas 4-5 mm. Cypselae 6-7 mm; pappi 3-4 mm. 2n = 36. Flowering Oct-May. Sandy desert soils; 0-1300 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora).

Plant: Annual, taprooted; herbage bristly or soft-hairy; stems 1-8 dm, simple to openly much-branched Leaves: basal and alternate, 1-10 cm, sessile above, wing-petioled below; blade lanceolate or ovate to elliptic or oblanceolate, green or ± canescent, tip acute, base tapering to wing, margin entire or dentate INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads radiate, solitary or few-many in panicles; involucre 7-12 mm; phyllaries narrowly lanceolate, acute, green, ciliate Flowers: Ray flowers 10-21, sterile; ligules 1-2 cm, yellow; Disk flowers: many; corollas 4-5 mm, yellow, tube slender, throat gradually expanded, lobes triangular; anther tips ovate, ± acute; style tips triangular Fruit: 6-7 mm, strongly compressed, narrowly wedge-shaped; edges ± white, long-ciliate; faces black, ± hairy; pappus of 2 narrow awns, 3-4 mm Misc: Sandy desert soils; < 1300 m.; Feb-May, Oct-Nov