Plants 5-50 cm. Stems 1-4, erect or ascending to decumbent, reddish, leafy, villous. Leaves: basal (in rosettes) petiolate, blades lanceolate to oblanceolate or spatulate, 50-200 × 5-40 mm, margins usually spinulose-serrate, sometimes entire, ciliate, apices acute, faces puberulent; cauline sessile, blades linear-lanceolate, 40-100 × 5-15 mm, reduced distally, faces glabrous or villous-hispid, eglandular. Heads usually borne singly, terminal, sometimes 2-3 in racemiform arrays, subtended by leaflike bracts. Peduncles 1-5 cm. Involucres turbinate to campanulate, 10-20 × 15-35 mm. Phyllaries in 3-5 series (± loose), linear-lanceolate to oblong, 10-20 mm, unequal, bases tapering, margins spinulose-serrate, ciliate, apices occasionally recurved, acute, mucronate, faces puberulent. Ray florets 0 or 1-30; corollas yellow, 2-7 mm (not surpassing involucres). Disc florets 25-50; corollas 9-14 mm. Cypselae subcylindric, 3-5.5 mm, 4-angled, faces striate or smooth, glabrous; pappi tawny, 6-9 mm.

Pyrrocoma carthamoides is recognized by its erect, leafy, and villous stems, hispidulous leaves and phyllaries, and large, usually single heads with somewhat loose phyllaries. The ray florets are usually reduced but sometimes are lacking altogether.