Plants 10-50 cm (stems hirsute and stipitate-glandular). Leaf blades blue-green to grayish blue-green, 10-30 × 1-4 mm, margins entire, apices acute or obtuse. Involucres broadly ellipsoid to campanulate, 6-12 mm. Ray florets 0 or 1-3. Disc florets 5-23, bisexual, fertile. Ray cypselae ± obcompressed, 6-8 mm. Disc pappi of 11-21 subulate, ciliate-plumose scales 4-7 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Open ridges and slopes, on metamorphics; of conservation concern; 1600-2400 m; Calif.

Anisocarpus scabridus occurs mostly in the Inner North Coast Ranges, with interior outliers in the southern Cascade Range.