Stems decumbent, prostrate, or commonly pendent from cliff edges; herbage glabrous, eglandular. Leaf blades broadly obovate or spatulate to oblanceolate, 25-40 × 6-9 mm, thick-fleshy, margins coarsely serrate. Heads in dense, capitate arrays. Corollas 5-7 mm. Cypselae 2.5-3.5 mm.

Flowering (Apr-)Jun-Dec. Dunes, talus slopes, cliff edges, coastal scrub; 0-20 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

The coastal habitats, low habit, and broad, fleshy-thick leaves of var. sedoides are characteristic. Intermediates with var. vernonioides have been collected at every locality where var. sedoides occurs, and some identifications will have to be made arbitrarily. H. M. Hall (1928) treated var. sedoides within var. vernonioides.