[1] Chaenactis stevioides is an annual herb growing one or more erect stems up to 10–45 centimetres (4–17+1⁄2 inches) tall.

The leaves are 1.5–4 centimetres (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 in) in length and are pinnately divided into many subdivided lobes.

Each head is lined with rigid, hairy and glandular phyllaries and filled with white, pink, or pale yellow disk flowers, the ones in the middle smaller and somewhat tubular, and the ones nearer to the edge larger and open-faced, resembling ray florets.

[1] Esteve's pincushion is native to California and the Great Basin of the United States and the southwestern deserts extending into Mexico, where it grows in open arid and semiarid habitat.

According to Flora of North America, it is "among the most abundant spring wildflowers in the higher Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin.