Annual erect herb to 45 cm high. Vegetative parts densely glandular, pilose, becoming glabrous with age. Leaves sessile; lower leaves oblanceolate or spathulate, to 70 mm long, to 25 mm wide, obtuse, dentate; upper leaves oblong, narrowly oblong, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 5–40 mm long, 2–6 mm wide, entire or dentate, acute to attenuate. Capitula 4–6 mm long, solitary, scattered, on peduncles to 160 mm long; involucral bracts glandular, glabrous; receptacle almost flat to convex, glabrous. Florets yellow, with marginal corollas rarely purplish in dried specimens; corollas 2.5–3.5 mm long. Disc florets functionally male, colourless in dried specimens; corolla lobes eglandular, glabrous, rarely with a single simple or septate hair. Achenes 0.6–0.8 mm long, faintly ribbed.