Annuals, 4-24 cm (taprooted). Stems erect or decumbent, simple or branched, sparsely strigose. Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate to subpetiolate; blades 1-nerved, oblanceolate, margins entire, apices mostly obtuse, faces sparsely strigose. Heads radiate, borne singly. Involucres hemispheric, (3-4.5 ×) 5-7 mm. Phyllaries 16-25 in 2 series, 1-nerved (midnerves not evident; flat), broadly oblanceolate to lanceolate, subequal , margins broadly scarious, hyaline (apices acute to obtuse), glabrous. Receptacles convex to conic, smooth, epaleate. Ray florets 15-25, pistillate, fertile; corollas lavender-tinged abaxially, white adaxially, and often drying with a bluish purple midstripe. Disc florets (20-)45-75, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, abruptly contracted, tubes shorter than narrowly tubular throats, lobes 5, erect, triangular; style-branch appendages lanceolate-acute. Cypselae (brownish) obovoid to widely ellipsoid, strongly compressed, margins pale, winglike, piloso-ciliate, body faces sparsely pilose (hairs apically glochidiate), wings glabrous; pappi of 2 ascending, thin, barbellate awns, usually plus elliptic ring of shorter awns. x = 3.