Ascending, annual or short-lived perennial herb, 15-50 cm tall. Stems glabrous, much-branched above and below, sometimes becoming ± leafless and woody toward base. Cauline lvs usually glabrous or with scattered hairs on midvein below and ciliate at base, apetiolate (cuneately narrowed to short petiole in lowermost lvs), fleshy, pale to mid green, oblanceolate to narrow- obovate, mostly entire and slightly involute, sometimes serrulate and often some lvs serrate or pinnatisect with 2-4 incisions on each side, acute and mucronate, cuneate to amplexicaul base, 20-60 × 2-10-(15) mm; venation palmate. Uppermost lvs smaller, often lanceolate and more often amplexicaul. Capitula solitary or few in corymbs. Supplementary bracts 9-17, narrow- triangular, 2-3 mm long. Involucral bracts 18-23, linear, glabrous, 5-7 mm long. Ray florets 11-16; ligules bright yellow, (5.5)-7-13 mm long. Disc golden yellow. Achenes subcylindric, constricted below apex, usually with (2)-3-(6) rows of hairs in grooves between broad ribs, sometimes glabrous, 1.6-2.2 mm long; pappus 3-5 mm long.