Plants 20-75 cm. Stems 1-5, erect, glabrous, gland-dotted, resinous. Leaves: basal petiolate, blades lanceolate or oblanceolate, 50-250 × 7-30 mm, margins sharply serrate, ciliate, apices acute; cauline sessile, blades lanceolate, 30-100 × 5-15 mm; faces glabrous, gland-dotted. Heads 12-30 in crowded, glomerate, spiciform arrays. Peduncles 0-1 cm. Involucres campanulate, 9-14 × 6-13 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, loose, linear or lanceolate, 7-13 mm, unequal, bases chartaceous, margins entire, eciliate, apices green, acute to acuminate or caudate, faces glabrous, gland-dotted. Ray florets 12-20; corollas 7-13 mm. Disc florets 25-40; corollas 6-10 mm. Cypselae subcylindric, 2.5-4 mm, 4-angled, faces striate, silky; pappi tawny to brownish, 5-7.5 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Alkaline grassy flats, sagebrush scrub, openings in pine forests; 700-1600 m; Calif.

Pyrrocoma lucida is recognized by its gland-dotted, resinous herbage, small heads in glomerate-spiciform arrays, and acuminate-caudate phyllaries. This tetra-ploid species appears to be closely related to P. racemosa (R. A. Mayes 1976).