Plants 40-100 cm. Leaves: proximal blades 3-8 cm, margins entire or undulate (sometimes weakly lobed near apices), faces densely lanate to woolly; cauline leaves (on proximal ¹/4 of stems) lance-oblong to ovate (1.5-3 cm). Heads 1-3. Involucres obconic, 10-15 mm diam. Phyllaries 8-12 mm, outer narrowly obovate to lanceolate, apices acuminate. Ray florets 16-25; laminae yellow, sometimes red-tinged distally, 8-10 mm. Disc corollas yellow. Cypselae 5-7 mm; pappus scales subequal, 1.5-2 mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering late spring-summer. Rocky slopes, talus, and flats, conifer forests, sometimes chaparral, on granitic and metamorphic substrates; 1300-2500 m; Calif.

Subspecies callicarpha grows in the Palomar, San Jacinto, and Santa Rosa mountains.