Taprooted annual. Stems erect, usually branched, 20–100 cm. Herbage strigose to puberulent. Leaves cauline, alternate above, simple, petiolate; blades lanceolate, serrate, 2–9 cm long. Inflorescence: heads on branch tips in a leafy, corymbiform array. Heads radiate; involucre hemispheric, 6–12 mm high; phyllaries green, in 1 or 2 subequal series, lanceolate, strigose, villous; receptacle hemispheric with scales clasping the achenes. Disk flowers perfect, yellow, tube shorter than the throat. Ray flowers pistllate or sterile; ligules yellow, 8–10 mm long, 3-lobed at the tip. Pappus of 2 awns; absent on ray achenes. Achenes winged, 3–5 mm long, strigose (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).