Plants 8-60 cm (self-incom-patible); glandular, not strongly scented. Stems not purple-streaked. Leaf blades oblong to oblanceolate, 6-50(-80) mm, margins (basal leaves) toothed to lobed. Involucres hemispheric to depressed-hemispheric, 3.5-8(-11) × 4-10(-13) mm. Phyllaries 6-15, apices longer or shorter than folded bases. Paleae in 1 series between ray and disc florets. Ray florets 6-15; laminae white, 3-12(-19) mm. Disc florets 20-100+; corollas 2.5-5 mm; anthers yellow to brownish. Ray cypselae sparsely hairy. Disc pappi 10-13 white, lanceolate, acuminate, ± equal scales 2-3.5 mm, not plumose, not adaxially woolly (bases sparsely setose). 2n = 14.

Flowering Mar-Apr. Grasslands, openings in chenopod scrub (historically), on sparsely-vegetated, clayey, subalkaline soils; of conservation concern; 100-400 m; Calif.

Layia leucopappa occurs in the Comanche and Tejon hills (western Tehachapi Range). Populations of the southern San Joaquin Valley (south and east of Bakersfield) have been extirpated.