Annuals, 20-60 cm. Stems scabrous to glabrate, not stipitate-glandular. Leaf blades linear, 20-70 × 1-4 mm. Involucres ± turbinate. Phyllaries 3-5 × 1+ mm, ± equal, ± strigillose, not stipitate-glandular. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 5-30; corollas actinomorphic, 5-6 mm, throats ± funnelform, shorter than lobes. Cypselae 3-5 mm; pappus scales of inner cypselae 0.3-1 mm. 2n = 20.

Flowering summer-fall. Rocky, calcareous soils; 50-300 m; Ark., Mo., Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila).

Some depauperate specimens of Palafoxia rosea (e.g., Oklahoma, Beckham Co., 17 Oct 1936, Eskero 1502, US) closely resemble P. callosa.