Plants 10-60 cm; proximal indument grayish, ± arachnoid. Stems mostly 1-5, ascending to erect; branches proximal and, often, distal. Leaves basal (withering) and cauline, 3-8 cm; largest blades ± plane to 3-dimensional, scarcely succulent, 1(-2)-pinnately lobed; primary lobes 2-7 pairs, remote to ± congested, ultimate lobes plane, twisted, involute, or terete. Heads 2-20+ per stem. Peduncles 1-4(-10) cm. Involucres ± hemispheric to obconic. Phyllaries: longest 5-7 × 1-2 mm; outer (at least medially) ± arachnoid-sericeous and, often, ± stipitate-glandular in fruit. Florets: inner corollas 4-6 mm. Cypselae 3-5.5 mm; pappi of (1-)4 scales in 1 series, longest scales mostly 2-4 mm, lengths 0.4-0.7 times corollas. 2n = 12.

Flowering Feb-Jun. Dry slopes, sandy places, openings in chaparral, woodlands; 100-2300 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Variety glabriuscula is known mainly in and west of the Peninsular Ranges and adjacent desert edges, inland from the coast; it also extends to Santa Rosa Island. Northward it intergrades with vars. megacephala and lanosa; near the coast it intergrades with var. orcuttiana. Forms sometimes recognized as var. tenuifolia are distinctive in the filiform leaf segments but merge seamlessly with the remainder of var. glabriuscula.