Annuals, 4-40 cm; herbage lemon-scented. Stems decumbent to erect (very leafy), glabrous or puberulent (in decurrent lines). Leaves linear, 10-50 × 1-3 mm, margins with 2-6 pairs of setae, faces glabrous (abaxial dotted submarginally with round oil-glands 0.2-0.5 mm). Heads borne singly or in congested, (leafy) cymiform arrays. Peduncles 0-1 mm. Involucres narrowly campanulate to cylindric. Phyllaries distinct, linear or linear-oblanceolate, 5-6 × 1-1.5 mm (dotted with scattered, elliptic oil-glands 0.4-0.5 mm). Ray florets 5; corollas 4.5-5.5 mm. Disc florets 4-10; corollas 2.5-3 mm (2-lipped). Cypselae 2.25-3.25 mm, puberulent; pappi (ray and disc similar) of 2-5 antrorsely barbed bristles or awns 1.5-2.5 mm plus shorter, barbellate scales. 2n = 48.

Flowering mostly Aug-Dec. Open sites, sandy-gravelly soils with grasses and other herbs; 0-50 m; Fla.

Reports of Pectis linearifolia from Jamaica were based on misidentifications of diminutive, short-peduncled individuals of P. glaucescens (D. J. Keil 1986). In Florida, P. linearifolia and P. glaucescens are largely allopatric; they occasionally occur in mixed populations. No hybrids are known.