Annuals, 10-80(-100) cm. Stems glabrous. Leaves: proximal usually absent at flowering; cauline blades 1- or 3-nerved, linear , 1.5-4 mm wide, reduced distally. Heads in loose arrays. Involucres campanulate to obconic, 2-4.5 mm diam.. Phyllary apices flat. Ray florets 5-23; corollas yellow, 3-6 mm. Disc florets 7-48 (bisexual and fertile or functionally staminate). Cypselae 1.3-1.8 mm, faces without oil cavities, loosely strigose (hairs appressed, apices acute, microscopically 2-pronged); pappi of 1 series of spreading-erect, oblong to ovate or obovate scales 0.1-0.5 mm (bases sometimes connate, usually shorter in rays, sometimes 0 in var. texana). Although the two varieties of Gutierrezia texana are similar, the geographic demarcation between them appears to be sharp, and a detailed investigation of their biologic interaction would be interesting.