Herbs annual, 5–30 cm, sap milky; taproots slender.
Stems erect, proximally leafy, glabrous or minutely glandular-pubescent, branched near bases or distally.
Leaves basal and cauline, blades broadly to narrowly oblanceolate, 0.5–3 cm, reduced distally to bracts, margins irregularly dentate to lobed, surfaces glabrous, teeth spine-tipped.
Inflorescences panicle-like arrays, much branched; peduncles bracteolate.
Heads 10–150+, ligulate.
Involucres ovoid.
Phyllaries 3–5, in 1 series, lanceolate, tips acute, surfaces glabrous or minutely glandular.
Receptacles flat to ± convex, smooth, glabrous; paleae 0.
Florets 3–4, bisexual; ligules 1.5–2 mm, slightly exceeding involucres, pink or white.
Fruits columnar, tapering downward, 2.5–3.5 mm, pale brown, glabrous, 5-ribbed and grooved, ribs minutely roughened; pappi of basally joined, smooth, white bristles in 2 unequal series, longest bristles 2–3 mm.
2n=14.
Sandy, gravelly, or clay soils, desert washes and slopes, sagebrush-juniper steppe. Flowering Mar–Jun. 800–1100 m. Owy. CA, NV; southeast to TX, south to Mexico. Native.
as described under Prenanthella exigua
Leaves 1-3 cm, reduced distally to bracts 0.5-5 mm. Heads 10-150+. Calyculus bractlets 0.5-1+ mm. Principal phyllaries 3-5 mm after flowering. Corollas 1.5-2 mm. Cypselae 2.5-3.5 mm; pappi: longest bristles 2-3 mm. 2n = 14.Flowering Mar-Jun. Sandy, gravelly, or clay soils, desert washes and open slopes to sagebrush-juniper steppes; 20-1900 m; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Nev., Oreg., Tex., Utah; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora).