Plants 10-100(-150) cm (plants self-compatible); branching ex-current or ± pseudo-dichotomous, distal stems eglandular. Leaves: blades grayish, mostly eglandular (distal stipitate-glandular abax-ially, glands whitish or yellowish; plants otherwise eglandular). Heads in paniculiform arrays or in glomerules. Calyculi of 2-5 bractlets. Involucres obconic to obovoid. Phyllaries 4-7 mm, piloso-hirsute on angles, hairs ± patent to antrorsely curved, 0.5-1+ mm. Ray laminae 3-6 mm. Cypselae dull to ± glossy (weakly striate). 2n = 14.

Flowering Apr-Oct. Grasslands, openings in chaparral, scrub, woodlands, and forests; 10-1800 m; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Wash.

Lagophylla ramosissima occurs widely in dry, often disturbed or poor soils of the California Floristic Province, Great Basin, and Pacific Northwest. Plants with heads in glomerate arrays have been treated as L. congesta or L. ramosissima subsp. congesta; W. C. Thompson (1983, p. 21) concluded that L. congesta represents an 'extreme morphological variant of L. ramosissima' unworthy of taxonomic recognition.