Annuals [perennials], mostly 20-130 cm (glandular, viscid). Leaves mostly cauline (at flowering), alternate; sessile; blade margins entire or dentate [serrate]. Heads radiate, in racemiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres ± campanulate, 3-8[-10+] mm diam. Phyllaries persistent (spreading to reflexed in fruit), in 3-4 series, unequal. Receptacles flat, smooth or alveolate, epaleate. Ray florets (6-)10-12(-16), pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow, aging reddish, laminae 2-7 mm. Disc florets 8-20+; corollas yellow, aging reddish, lobes 4-5. Cypselae ellipsoid to terete (abruptly constricted distally; usually glandular distally); pappi persistent (fragile), of basally connate, barbellate bristles in 1 series. x = 9, 10.

Dittrichia viscosa (Linnaeus) Greuter [Inula viscosa Linnaeus, Cupularia viscosa (Linnaeus) Godron & Grenier] was collected in the late 1800s as a ballast weed in Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It does not appear to have become naturalized at any of those sites (A. Cronquist 1980; J. E. Arriagada 1998).