Annuals or perennials (subshrubs), 20-80 cm. Stems ± scabrous, not stipitate-glandular. Leaf blades ovate-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 30-80 × (5-)10-20 mm. Involucres ± turbinate. Phyllaries 5-8 × 1-2.5 mm, ± equal, scabrellous, rarely stipitate-glandular. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 10-25; corollas actinomorphic, 7-10 mm, throats ± funnelform, shorter than lobes. Cypselae 4-6 mm; pappus scales of inner cypselae 2-6 mm. 2n = 22.

Flowering spring-fall. Calcareous, usually rocky or gravelly soils; 10-100+ m; Fla., La., Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas).

Plants of Palafoxia texana with non-stipitate-glandular phyllaries (versus stipitate-glandular) and pappus scales (on inner cypselae) 1-4 (versus 3-6) mm have been treated as var. ambigua. Some specimens are not readily assignable to either variety, and some are not readily assignable to either P. rosea or P. texana.