Plants 0.3-0.8(-1) × (0.5-)0.8-3(-5) dm. Leaves: basal blades (1.5-)2-5(-6) × (0.2-)0.3-0.7(-0.9) cm; cauline blades (0.5-)1-3.5 × (0.1-)0.3-0.8(-1) cm. Inflorescences: bracts dimorphic, lateral 2 obvious, 2-5 mm, thinly pubescent, central 1 obscured, 1-2(-3) mm, densely tomentose. Involucral bracts 2 mm, densely tomentose. Flowers: perianth 1.5-2 mm. Achenes 1.7-2 mm. 2n = 42.

Flowering Mar-Jul. Sandy to gravelly or clayey places, mixed grassland, desert scrub, chaparral communities, woodlands; 10-1000 m; Calif.

Hollisteria lanata is encountered occasionally in the San Joaquin Valley and the adjacent coastal ranges and eastward in the Transverse Ranges to Kern and Tulare counties. Plants are only rarely locally common.