Stems glaucous. Basal leaves gray-green, glaucous, often purple-tinged, especially abaxially, often adaxially mottled, 1-12 × 0.5-6 cm. Heads 1.5-3.5 cm diam. Involucres 6-10 mm. Florets: corollas 8-20 mm, inner with bases yellow or purple, much shorter than outer. Cypselae 4-4.5 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering Feb-May. Dry desert slopes, valleys, and washes; 0-1400 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah; Mexico (Baja California). Atrichoseris platyphylla grows in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.

Plant: Annual, 2-18 dm, glabrous; sap milky; Stem erect Leaves: basal and lowest cauline generally flat against soil, sessile or tapering to a short, winged petiole, 3-10 cm, obovate, obtuse, finely dentate, gray-green, often purple-tinged, especially below; cauline few, reduced to inconspicuous, triangular scales INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads ligulate, 1.5-2.5 cm diam, few-many in an open scapose cyme; involucre 6-10 mm; phyllaries in 2-4 series, outer short, triangular to lanceolate, inner 10-15, ± equal; receptacle naked Flowers: fragrant; ligules white, readily withering Fruit: achenes, 4-4.5 mm with 5 thick, corky ribs, whitish; pappus 0 Misc: Desert valleys and washes; < 1400 m.; Mostly Mar-May