Herbage minutely hispidulous to hirtellous or sparsely puberulous (at least distal stems), not resinous. Leaf blades oblong-oblanceolate, 20-35 mm, margins pinnatifid (lobes spreading at right angles, linear to filiform). Involucres 4-6.5 × 2-2.8 mm. Phyllary apices with small, sharply delimited, green resinous area, not aristate, often distinctly thickened and approaching resin pockets, usually gland-dotted. Florets 8-12(-15); corollas 4.5-6 mm. Cypsela ribs not forming hornlike extensions. Flowering Sep-Nov. Sandy or gravelly flats and hills, grasslands, usually matorral or Larrea stands; 700-1600 m; Ariz., N.Mex.; Mexico (Sonora). Some plants approach Isocoma acradenia var. acradenia in leaf and phyllary morphology in southern Arizona, where the ranges of the two taxa overlap.

Plant: Subshrub to 80 cm Leaves: leaves alternate, pinnatifid, somewhat glandular