Plants 50-100 cm. Stems erect, usually branched distally. Cauline leaves: blades ovate-lanceolate to deltate, (8-)10-15(-20) cm, bases truncate to subcordate, margins entire or finely dentate or serrulate, faces tomentulose to pilosulous (and gland-dotted). Heads held beyond leaves. Involucres hemispheric, 25-40 mm diam. Outer phyllaries lanceolate, 20-30 mm (equaling or surpassing discs, tips often spreading to squarrose). Ray florets 10-14(-23), laminae (30-)50-60 mm. Cypselae 8-12 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes distally strigillose; pappi coroniform (lacerate, projected into scales on angles), (0.5-)1-2(-3) mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering Jun-Jul(-Aug). Open pine forests; 900-1200 m; Calif.

Agnorhiza elata is known only from foothills of the Sierra Nevada.