A woody base (caudex) produces short branches with a dense clusters of overlapping basal leaves. Numerous 6–16-inch tall, slightly hairy (not woolly) leafless flower stems (peduncles) grow from the basal cluster of leaves. Each flower stem is topped with a showy flower head with yellow rays  that have three shallow lobes and 4 distinct nerves or veins running lengthwise. Having only basal leaves, tall flowering stems, and numerous, often overlapping, rays help identify this species.

FLOWER: March–June, September–October. Each flower stem (peduncle) is 2 3/4–16-inches tall (7–40 cm), leafless, and bears one flower. Flower heads 3/4–1 1/4-inch wide (2–3 cm) with 12–31 yellow, petal-like ray flowers around a yellow disk. The rays have 4 veins, or nerves, often dark colored, spreading from the base to the tips. Phyllaries hairy, stacked in 2 rows, inner and outer similar.

LEAVES: Basal cluster of overlapping linear to spatula-shaped, hairy leaves that reach 3-inches long (7.6 cm) and 3/8-inch wide (9 mm). Stems leaves crowd around base and do not ascend the flower stem. NM has var.  scaposa with sparsely hairy to hairless leaves, and the stem near the leaves is not densely woolly.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,500–7,600 feet.

RANGE: CO, IL, KS, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The annual Fineleaf Bitterweed, T. linearifolia, in se NM plains, has stems with leafy upper branches, and flower heads with 9–20 rays. Bitterweed, Hymenoxys odorata, in the same range, has thread-like stem leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in arid habitats in eastern 2/3 NM: Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Quay, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Union, Valencia.