Annuals, 15-80 cm; taprooted. Stems erect, branched distally (rarely at base), sparsely to densely pilose. Leaves: basal oblanceolate, 50-100 × 10-25 mm, margins entire to apically dentate, pilose, apices acute, faces pilose; cauline linear-elliptic, reduced distally to 10 mm or less, margins obscurely dentate or entire. Heads 1-30(-70). Peduncles 1.5-7 cm, short-pilose, sometimes stipitate-glandular distally; bracts foliaceous, grading to linear scales. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, linear, unequal, margins scarious, faces sparsely to densely short- to long-pilose, sparsely glandular. Ray florets (11-)16(-24); laminae 7-12 × 1-2 mm. Disc florets 25-60, bisexual, fertile; corollas 4.5-6 mm, lobes 0.5 mm. Cypselae stramineous to brown, obconic-obovoid, compressed (narrowly elliptic in cross section), smooth or slightly ribbed, faces short-strigose; pappi in 2(-3) series, outer of light tan, flat scales 0.5-1.1 mm, inner 1(-2) of yellow to rust proximally, whitish to tan distally, linear, barbellate bristles 5-6 mm. 2n = 8.

Flowering late spring-early summer. Sandy and rocky soils, dry prairies, fields, glades, roadsides; 10-400 m; Ark., Kans., La., Miss., Mo., Okla., Tenn., Tex.

Bradburia pilosa grows in the western coastal plain province, southwestern central lowlands province, lower elevations of the Ozark Plateau province, and has possibly been introduced at a few locations in the interior low plateau province. It has possibly been introduced at a few sites in Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and in Leon County, Florida.