Perennial herb; taproot thick. Branches few, annual from the caudex, ±erect, 40–60 cm long, often almost leafless. Leaves mainly basal, alternate, sessile, with lower lamina slightly widened at stem junction; ‘petiole’ to 45 mm long; upper lamina trullate in outline, pinnatipartite (rarely bipinnatipartite), 4–5 cm long, 3 cm wide, green adaxially, glaucous abaxially; lobes narrow, apiculate, 1-nerved; uppermost cauline leaves often ±simple. Capitula few, to 10 mm diam. (excluding rays); involucral bracts oblong, 2.3–2.8 mm long, 0.7–1.3 mm wide, striate; receptacle hemispherical; paleae 2.8–4.0 mm long, c. 1.0 mm wide, more scarious on margins. Ray florets female, c. 5; ligule 3-lobed, c. 2 mm long, yellow, with 5 or 7 nerves. Disc florets bisexual, 10–16, c. 2 mm long, 4-lobed, yellow. Achenes a strongly incurved cylinder (an inverted J), swollen at base, shortly beaked terminally, 4–5.5 mm long, c. 0.8 mm wide, glabrous, weakly ribbed, dark brown to black. Pappus awns strongly reflexed, 2.5–3.0 mm long, retrorsely barbed, with a distinctly prolonged tubercule between awns.
Grows in low hilly areas in eucalypt woodland (associated species Eucalyptus melanophloia, E. umbra, E. shirleyi, Corymbia maculata, Corymbia sp., Petalostigma banksii) with grassy (Themeda triandra) understorey on shallow sandy soil with rocky outcrops, at altitudes of 300–850 m.