Fibrous-rooted annual. Stems erect to ascending, 5–20 cm, highly branched. Herbage ill-smelling, glabrous or puberulent with sessile glands. Leaves cauline, opposite, petiolate; the blades ovate, 1–2 cm mm long, deeply 1 to 2-times divided into well-separated linear to lanceolate segments. Inflorescence leafy-cymose; heads terminating numerous branches. Heads radiate; involucres campanulate, 5–8 mm high; phyllaries amber-glandular, 6 to 12 in 2 unequal series; outer green, linear-lanceolate; inner purplish, scarious, ovate; receptacle convex, glabrous. Ray flowers 5 to 8, female, orangish; ligules 1–2 mm long. Disk flowers perfect, 12 to 50, yellow to reddish; corolla 2–3 mm long; style appendages elongate, hairy. Pappus 15 to 20 scales in 2 series, each divided into 5 to 10 bristles. Achenes obconic, 3–4 mm long, long-strigose (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).