Annuals, 4-25 cm. taprooted . Stems erect, branching proximally and distally, leafy, eglandular or stipitate-glandular, especially distally. Leaves basal (rosettes) and cauline; blades broadly to narrowly oblanceolate, 1-10 cm, margins entire or remotely dentate or lobed, lobes acute or rounded, apices acute to obtuse. faces eglandular or lightly glandular-villous. Heads borne singly. Peduncles from branching, leafy stems. Involucres 3.5-5.5 mm. Phyllaries 5-9, erect in fruit, narrowly to broadly lanceolate, midveins becoming prominent in fruit, curving inward at bases to form keels, apices acute. Florets 5-25; corollas yellow, 4-7 mm. Cypselae reddish brown, broadly columnar or barrel-shaped, 1.3-1.6 mm (apices slightly constricted, apical areas broader than basal areoles), 15-ribbed; pappi 0, or coroniform (minute scales, rarely with 1-5 tiny bristles). 2n = 18.

Flowering Mar-May. Sandy, clay, loam, and rocky soils, fields, pastures, prairies, hillsides, and open oak-hickory and pine woods. sometimes in disturbed areas; 10-300 m; Ark., La., Okla., Tex.

Krigia wrightii grows in the Eastern deciduous forest biome, southeastern Coastal Plain, tallgrass prairie, and mixedgrass prairie. It was confused with K. cespitosa by L. H. Shinners (1947); its cypselae, involucres, and chromosome number set it apart. It often grows sympatrically with K. occidentalis or K. cespitosa, and mixed collections may occur.