Plants annual, caulescent, erect, 5-30 cm. Leaves basal and cauline; blade bright green or yellow-green, glabrous; ultimate lobes obtuse except terminal one slender, acute. Inflorescences cymose or 1-flowered; buds nodding. Flowers: receptacle obconic, cup without spreading free rim; calyx apiculate, glabrous, sometimes glaucous; petals yellow, 15-30 mm. Capsules 5-7 cm. Seeds tan to brown, spheric to ellipsoid, 1-1.4 mm, reticulate. 2 n = 12.

Flowering spring (Mar-May). Desert slopes, hillsides; 0-1200 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California and Sonora).

Plants of the El Paso and Rand mountains in the western Mojave Desert that have been referred to this species are Eschscholzia minutiflora .

The Kawaiisu used Eschscholzia parishii medicinally to treat venereal sores, gonorrhea, and syphilis (D. E. Moerman 1986).