Annual with grayish-green stems covered with long soft hairs. Grows along the ground or upright. Stem leaves are small and narrow. Yellow, sometimes pink dandelion-like flowers may be streaked with purple and usually grow singly at the stem tips.
Basal leaves wither before flowering; flower heads mostly born singly at branch ends, disc flowers only, yellow, sometimes pink or suffused with purple; style-branch appendages lance-like, <1/16 inch long, corolla tubes without brown-purple band inside.
Habitat
Found in the desert and other areas with sandy soils.
Flower Characteristics
Flower heads often grow singly but sometimes in clusters of 10 to 25. Each head consists only of many tiny funnel-shaped flowers (disc florets) with long lobes and often with white markings in the throat. Below each flower head are hairy leaf-like bracts.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Stem leaves are narrow, often less than 3/4 inch, with dense, short, matted hairs on the lower leaf surfaces. Margins may be smooth or have tooth-like points at the tips. Much larger leaves grow around the base of young plants but wither before flowering.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Fruit is 1/16 to 1/8 inch long, funnel-shaped and marked with spots of purplish-brown (mottled). Its surface has flat, dense, silky hairs and a tuft at its tip consisting of numerous, unequal, white or tannish-white bristles aiding in fruit dispersal.
The fruit produces a dry single seed.