The new genus is named for UC Davis botanist Donald Kyhos.

[2] Kyhosia is a perennial herb which may exceed a meter in height.

Its slender stem is bristly and covered in dark-colored, stalked resin glands.

The bristly linear or lance-shaped leaves may be up to 30 centimeters long; those occurring oppositely along the stem are sometimes fused together at the bases.

Each head has a bell-shaped involucre of bristly, glandular phyllaries at the base, a center of black-tipped yellow disc florets, and a fringe of 8 to 12 golden ray florets roughly 1 centimeter long.