It is endemic to California, where it is known from around the San Francisco Bay Area to the Transverse Ranges behind Los Angeles.

Layia hieracioides is an annual herb producing a thick, glandular, strongly scented stem to a maximum height near 1.3 meters, but often remains shorter.

The thin leaves are linear to lance-shaped, with the lower ones lobed or toothed and up to nearly 15 centimeters in maximum length.

The flower head has a rounded to urn-shaped base of green phyllaries covered in dark glandular hairs.

The head contains short yellow ray florets only a few millimeters long around a center of yellow disc florets with purple anthers.