Plants (10-)20-55 cm, self-compatible (heads not showy). Stems hirsute, distally glandular-pubescent, glands yellowish, purple, or black, lateral branches rarely surpassing main stems. Leaf blades linear, 2-10 cm × 2-7 mm. Heads in open, racemiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres globose or depressed-globose, 6-10 mm. Phyllaries hirsute and glandular-pubescent, glands yellowish, purple, or black, apices erect or ± reflexed, flat. Paleae mostly persistent, connate ¹/4-¹/2+ their lengths. Ray florets 3-8; corollas greenish yellow, laminae 3-4.5 mm. Disc florets 3-8, bisexual, fertile; corollas 3.5-4 mm, pubescent; anthers ± dark purple. Ray cypselae black or purple, glossy, ± terete, beakless. Disc cypselae similar. 2n = 32.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Open, often grassy slopes in woodlands and chaparral; 0-500 m; Calif.

Madia anomala occurs locally in the North Coast Ranges, San Francisco Bay area, and Sutter Buttes (southern Sacramento Valley), sometimes with the morphologically similar M. gracilis.