This plant is a spring annual, consisting of a small rosette of leaves up to 6" across and one or more flowering stalks up to 14" tall.

They are light green, oblanceolate, and often pinnatifid with shallow lobes that are pointed at their tips.

Each flowering stalk is unbranched and devoid of leaves; it is largely hairless, although there may be a few scattered hairs along its length, especially near the top.

They are erect while the flowerhead is blooming, but eventually become reflexed when the achenes mature.

The blooming period occurs from mid-spring to mid-summer and lasts about 2–3 months for a colony of plants.