Stems glabrous or villous. Abaxial leaf faces glabrous or villous. Involucres obconic to cylindric, 4-7 mm. Phyllaries glabrous or villous. Disc florets 17-30; style-branch appendages lanceolate, 0.3-1.3 mm. 2n = 10.

Flowering May-Oct. Desert areas, chaparral, pine forests, usually sandy soils; 500-2400 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev.; Mexico (Baja California).

As here circumscribed, var. glandulifera includes plants that lack a colored band in corolla tubes and have lanceolate style-branch appendages (others have treated those plants as Lessingia lemmonii var. lemmonii). Also included are plants that sometimes form tumbleweeds and have puberulent phyllaries and overlapping cauline leaves that clasp the bases of involucres (others have treated those as L. lemmonii var. ramulosissima). In California, var. glandulifera is known from the Transverse Range, the Peninsular Range, and the Mojave Desert (north to Mono County).