Annuals, 20-100 cm, herbaceous. Leaf blades linear to linear-oblanceolate, mid-cauline 1-3(-4) mm wide. Heads on short, sometimes bracteate peduncles, not surpassed by distal leaves. Involucres 4-7 × 10-15 mm. Phyllaries in 4-5 series, tightly appressed, strongly unequal, apices erect to slightly spreading, ca. 1 mm wide, herbaceous. Ray florets 14-19; corollas 6.5-9.5 mm. Disc florets: corolla tubes ± equaling limbs. 2n = 12.

Flowering Oct-Nov(-Dec). Sand or sandy loam, fields, pastures, usually relatively bare sites; of conservation concern; 0-10 m; Tex.

Rayjacksonia aurea is now restricted to a few, small populations in the vicinity of Houston. It is in the Center for Plant Conservation´s National Collection of Endangered Plants.