Herbage usually glabrous, sometimes minutely hispidulous, often stipitate-glandular, often resinous. Leaf blades oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 20-150 mm, margins entire or toothed or lobed (teeth or lobes apically rounded-obtuse). Involucres 5-8 × 5-7 mm. Phyllary apices yellowish to greenish yellow, sometimes spinulose-aristate, usually not gland-dotted, usually with single, strongly developed, subepidermal resin pocket nearly as wide as bracts, sometimes a central pocket and 2+ smaller, lateral ones (resin pockets sometimes formed from numerous, coalesced, sessile glands). Florets 12-27; corollas 5-7(-8) mm. Cypsela ribs not forming apical horns. Isocoma acradenia is distinctive in its whitish stems and narrow, whitish-indurate phyllaries with an apical resin pocket (or pockets). The leaves often occur in axillary fascicles.

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora): sw United States, nw Mexico.

Plant: Subshrub to 80 cm, rounded or open; ss erect or ascending, branched from ground or above, glabrous or minutely scabrous, yellow-white, varnished, shiny, becoming yellow-tan or gray with age Leaves: leaves alternate, linear-cuneate, somewhat glandular, 1.5-6 cm, 1.5-15 mm wide, entire or toothed, generally light gray-green INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads discoid, in loose to tight clusters of 4-5; involucre 4-5 mm, 4-5 mm diam; phyllaries 22-36 in 3-6 series, oblong, tips blunt, rounded, or acute, green or tan to 1/4 total length of phyllary, swollen by glandular exudate below surface, appearing wart-like Flowers: 6-17, yellow; tubes narrowly cylindric, abruptly expanded into larger cylindric throat; sinuses shallow, lobes erect; style branch appendages triangular Fruit: 2-3.5 mm, narrowly obconic, light tan, silky-hairy; hairs white, yellow, tan, or light red-tan; pappus of 1-2 series of white, yellowish, or red-tan bristles ± 2 X fruit; pappus 3-5.5 mm, white-yellow, bristles unequal Misc: Sandy or clay soils in alkaline or gypsum flats or slopes; < 1300 m. References: J.C. Hickman, ed. The Jepson Manual.L. Benson & R. Darrow. Trees and Shrubs of the Southwestern Deserts. W.B. McDougal. Seed plants of Northern Arizona. ASU specimens.