Plants generally reddish. Invo-lucres 1.5-2 mm; prominent teeth with awns 2-3 mm. 2n = 40.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Sandy to gravelly soil, mixed grassland and chaparral communities, pine-oak woodlands; 30-1500 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Variety longispina is localized and uncommon in the mountains from western Riverside County south through San Diego County into northern Baja California. There are scattered and even rarer disjunct populations of long-awned spineflower along the coast in the San Diego area.