It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Idaho to central California, where it grows in several types of habitat, including open areas on gravelly mountain slopes.

It is a hairy annual herb producing a branching, erect stem.

As the common name suggests, the leaves are variable in shape, the lower generally with several toothed lobes and the upper sometimes lacking lobes.

The inflorescence is a cluster of flowers emerging from the top of the stem or from the axil of a leaf.

It may bear up to 25 flowers, each with star-shaped corolla at the tip of an elongated tube.