Shrubs, 50-100 cm (evergreen), glabrous, resinous. Stems erect, branched. Leaves cauline; alternate; sessile; blades 1-nerved , oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic (bases sometimes attenuate), margins entire, faces gland-dotted, resinous (covered by reticulum of subisodiametric areoles, each areole surrounded by sunken border). Heads usually radiate, sometimes discoid, in dense (terminal), cymiform arrays. Involucres cylindric, (5-6 ×) 2-2.5 mm. Phyllaries 8-12 in 3-4(-5) series (in vertical ranks), erect, loose, stamineous, 1-nerved (midnerves orange-resinous from bases to apices; flat), lanceolate, unequal, margins scarious. Receptacles flat, shallowly pitted, epaleate. Ray florets (0-)1-2(-3), pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow. Disc florets (2-)3-4(-5), bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, tubular-funnelform, tubes longer than throats, lobes 5 , spreading-recurving, lanceolate; style-branch appendages linear-triangular (closely papillate). Cypselae (brownish ) turbinate-oblong, nearly terete, 8-10-ribbed, densely strigoso-sericeous; pappi persistent , of 40-60 tan, unequal, barbellate, apically attenuate bristles in 2-3 series. x = 9.

Chrysoma pauciflosculosa was originally described within Solidago; it is distinct in anatomy (F. E. Lloyd 1901; K. Phillips 1963; L. C. Anderson and J. B. Creech 1975) and other features. Chrysoma is recognized by its shrubby habit, areolate-resinous leaves, corymbiform arrays of glomerate, cylindric, few-flowered heads, long disc corolla lobes, and papillate style-branch appendages.