Herbage glabrous or villlous, sometimes stipitate-glandular, not resinous. Leaf blades obovate to spatulate or oblanceolate to nearly linear, 5-40 mm, margins entire or toothed to lobed. Involucres (6-)7-9 × 6-8 mm. Phyllary apices green to yellowish, not aristate, sometimes with weakly developed, non- or weakly spinulose projection, gland-dotted, without resin pockets or pockets small, weakly developed (var. decumbens and var. menziesii). Florets (15-)18-25(-28); corollas 5-7 mm. Cypsela ribs not forming apical horns.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous perennials, to 2 m tall, stems mat-forming or prostrate to erect, branched from the base or rarely above, herbage stipitate-glandular or glabrous to villous, sometimes minutely scabrous, and yellow-tan, gray, gray-green, or red-brown in color.

Leaves: Alternate, ovate or obovate to widely spatulate (spoon-shaped), or oblanceolate to nearly linear, 5-45 mm long and 5-15 mm wide, margins entire, toothed, or pinnately lobed, surfaces gland-dotted, sometimes gummy-resinous, light to dark gray-green, blades sometimes clustered in axils.

Flowers: Yellow with dark orange-resinous veins, florets 15-28 in discoid heads, corollas 5-7 mm long, with narrowly cylindric tubes abruptly expanded into a larger cylindric throat and short, erect, deltate lobes, these elongating at maturity, unequal, with outer lobes prominently bent or leaning outward and abruptly enlarged, involucres obconic, 6-9 mm long and 6-8 mm wide, phyllaries yellow-white with green tips, apices not aristate, sometimes with weakly developed with a non- or weakly spinulose projection, surfaces gland-dotted, without resin pockets or if present pockets small and weakly developed, receptacles flat, without palea, style branch appendages triangular, infloresences in loose to tight cyme-like clusters, these borne at branch tips or in flat-topped or panicle-like clusters.

Fruits: Cypselae (achenes) light tan, narrowly obconic, with 5-11 ribs, (ribs not forming apical horns), surfaces covered with fine, silky hairs. Pappus in 1-2 series, white to tan-white and silky-hairy with hairs white, yellow, tan, or light red-tan, 3-5 mm long

Ecology: Unknown.

Distribution: California; Mexico.

Ethnobotany: Specific uses for this species are unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Synonyms: Pyrrocoma menziesii

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Isocoma comes from the Greek meaning "an equal hair-tuft," and referring to the flowers, while menziesii is named after Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), Scottish botanist and surgeon.