Plants 10-80(-120) cm; stems ± resinous distally (not notably stipitate-glandular). Heads in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres ± obconic to ± globose. Phyllaries each bearing (0-)5-15(-20) gland-tipped processes and usually glabrous or minutely sessile- or stipitate-glandular (rarely ± hispid). Ray florets 4-9. Disc florets 11-21; anthers yellow to brownish. 2n = 12.

Flowering Apr-Nov. Grasslands, savannas; 10-500 m; Calif.

Holocarpha obconica ranges from the eastern San Francisco Bay area and northwest San Joaquin Valley to the Inner South Coast Ranges and is disjunct in western foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada. Often, H. obconica occurs with or near H. heermannii or H. virgata. Crossing studies have shown that different populations of H. obconica retain high interfertility; crosses to other species of Holocarpha have failed or yielded sterile hybrids (J. Clausen 1951).