Annuals, 25-180 cm. Stems usually stipitate-glandular throughout. Leaf blades broadly to narrowly lanceolate, 50-100 × 3-25 mm. Involucres broadly turbinate. Phyllaries 7-16+ × 3-5 mm, ± equal, scabrous and/or stipitate-glandular. Ray florets 5-13; corollas 10-20 mm, laminae 9-14 mm. Disc florets 25-90; corollas ± actinomorphic, 10-12 mm, throats ± funnelform, shorter than lobes. Cypselae 6-9 mm; pappus scales of inner cypselae 5-8 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering late summer-fall. Sandy soils; 10-200+ m; Tex.

Plants of Palafoxia hookeriana with stems stipitate-glandular distally (versus throughout), phyllaries 7-12 (versus 10-16) mm, and florets 25-50 (versus 50-90) per head have been treated as var. minor Shinners.