Reaching 3-feet tall, this rough-hairy plant can be covered with few or as many as 25–45, rich yellow flower heads. Note the leaves are triangular to heart-shaped, pointed, and on very short stems.

FLOWERS: July–September. Flower heads to 2 1/2-inches wide (7.5 cm) have 6–8 yellow, petal-like ray flowers, each 3/8–3/4-inch long (9–19 mm), with a single  notch in the tip, and on stems (peduncles) to 6–inches long (15 cm); disk is yellow with protruding dark stamens. The phyllaries beneath the rays are lance-shaped and gradually narrow to a point.

LEAVES: Lower stems opposite, upper leaves alternate. Blades oval to triangular or lance-shaped, 3/4–4-inches long (2–10 cm), by 1/2–2 3/4-inches wide (1.3–7 cm); margins serrated to minutely toothed, surfaces 3-nerved and rough-hairy. Note the leaf stems (petioles) are less than 3/8-inch long (8 mm).

HABITAT: Sandy, gravel loam soils; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa forests.

ELEVATION: 4,600–8,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Plateau Goldeneye, V. dentata, in the southern 2/3 of NM, has 10–14 rays, and longer leaf stems (petioles), 3/8–2-inches long (10–55 mm). The ray flowers of Golden Crownbeard, Verbesina encelioides, throughout NM, have tips with three teeth. Showy Goldeneye, Heliomeris multiflora, widespread in w. NM, has narrow leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Southern half of NM, except the eastern plains, in low- to mid-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance.