Annuals, 6-100 cm. Stems ± solid. Leaves: proximal blades pinnati-fid, faces ± hirsute or villous and sometimes stipitate-glandular. Heads usually in paniculiform arrays sometimes congested. Bracts subtending heads usually overlapping proximal 0-¹/2 of each involucre. Phyllaries evenly stipitate-glandular, including margins and apices, usually with non-glandular, non-pustule-based hairs as well. Paleae in 1 series. Ray florets 8-13(-15); laminae pale to deep yellow, 4-8 mm. Disc florets 11-32, all or mostly functionally staminate; anthers reddish to dark purple. Pappi of 5-14 linear, lance-linear, or oblong, fimbriate to erose scales 1-2 mm.

Extensive morphologic and ecologic variation within Deinandra increscens has been interpreted variously. Subspecies recognized here follow the treatment of B. D. Tanowitz (1982) except for return of Hoover´s subsp. foliosa to D. paniculata A. Gray and recognition of D. bacigalupii B. G. Baldwin for members of subsp. increscens in the sense of Tanowitz from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area.