Annuals, rarely perennials, 15-80 cm; woody caudices taprooted. Stems 1 (rarely multistemmed), erect, branches few from mid to distal nodes, sparsely pilose. Leaves: basal usually withering by flowering, blades linear-oblanceolate, 30-60 × 3-8 mm, margins entire to apically dentate, coarsely hispido-pilose (apices obtuse to acute), faces sparsely hispido-pilose; cauline often only with distal present at flowering, blades linear-oblanceolate to linear, margins obscurely dentate or entire, coarsely hispid-pilose, faces sparsely hispid-pilose, stipitate-glandular. Heads 1-15(-50). Peduncles 1.5-10 cm, moderately short-hispido-pilose, stipitate-glandular distally; bracts foliaceous, grading into phyllaries. Phyllaries in 4-5 series, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, strongly unequal, margins broadly scarious, faces sparsely hispido-pilose proximally, sparsely stipitate-glandular. Ray florets (7-)10(-14); laminae 6-13 × 1-2 mm. Disc florets 11-25, functionally staminate, sterile; corollas 3-4 mm, lobes 0.3-0.4 mm. Cypselae (ray) stramineous to brown, triangular in section, slightly ribbed, faces densely strigose; pappi in 2-3 series, of sometimes reddish proximally, yellow to tan or white distally, narrow- to broad-based bristles, outer basally broader, 1-2.5 mm, inner, 2-3 mm. 2n = 6, 8.

Flowering late spring-early summer. Mixed sand and gravel soils, in open, barren to grass-covered areas in open pine-oak-juniper woods, disturbed roadsides; (0-)70-200 m; La., Tex.

Bradburia hirtella grows in the southwestern coastal plain province in Texas and southern Louisiana, and at a few disjunct locations, possibly as waifs (K. N. Gandhi and R. D. Thomas 1989). It occurs in the southern portion of post oak savanna of eastern Texas; populations are frequent on the Oakville Escarpment. It also occurs on the Black Branch Barrens of the Catahoula formation (in Jasper County) of the piney woods area of eastern Texas. Nearly all populations consist of annuals with 2n = 6; the southernmost population(s) in Dewitt County, Texas, include multistemmed perennials with 2n = 8 (J. C. Semple and C. C. Chinnappa 1984).