Hairy, grayish/silvery-green leaves cover the 4–16-inch tall slender plant with one to several slender stems from the base. Each stem usually branches 1–5 times near the apex with a yellow flower at each tip. Note the opposite, leaves with a long, pointed middle lobe and 2 smaller side lobes.

FLOWER: April–October. The 1 1/4–2-inch wide flower heads have 10–20 bright-yellow, petal-like ray flowers surrounding an orange-yellow disk. 

LEAVES: Opposite until near the top of the stem. Blades are 3/8–2-inches long, usually with 3 lance-shaped and pointed lobes, (not oval, rounded), the middle one the longest but variable, and densely covered with short, soft hairs flat against the surface.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert scrub, creosote-mesquite.

ELEVATION: 3,300–5,800 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Desert Marigold, Baileya multiradiata, in the desert southern half of NM, has dense flower heads with 34–60 yellow rays on unbrached stems, and gray-woolly leaves with round lobes. Ragleaf Bahia, Amauriopsis dissecta, nearly statewide, has alternate leaves divided into narrow linear segments.

NM COUNTIES: Central to southern NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro.