Annuals, 5-30 cm; taprooted. Stems 1-3, erect or ascending, branched from bases; distal stems, branches, and involucres conspicuously dotted with short, stipitate, flat-topped glands that resemble tacks. Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; sessile; basal blades pinnately lobed (lobes narrow, linear, often delicate, spreading, margins entire, smooth); distal reduced to linear, entire bracts. Heads borne singly or in open, cymiform arrays. Peduncles (1-3 cm) not inflated, not bracteate. Calyculi of 8-16, reflexed, unequal bractlets (lengths to 1/2 phyllaries). Involucres campanulate, 5-12+ mm diam. Phyllaries 12-20 in 1 series, linear-lanceolate, equal, margins scarious, apices acute . Receptacles flat, smooth, bristly, epaleate (each floret subtended by 1 fine, capillary bristle). Florets ca. 25; corollas white or yellow (showy). Cypselae tan to brown, fusiform, beaked, ribs 5, separated by longitudinal grooves, faces glabrous or scabridulous; pappi (borne on denticulate cups at beak tips) falling (together), of 50-60+, white, basally connate, smooth bristles 5-8(-9) mm in 1 series. x = 7.
