It is endemic to California, where it is widespread across the northern parts of the Central Valley and adjacent foothills and mountains, including the Sierra Nevada foothills and the mountains of the San Francisco Bay Area.

It may be petite and just a few centimeters tall, or over half a meter in erect height with many spreading branches.

It is generally glandular, with knobby glands most easily seen on the leaves, and often hairy to woolly.

The flower heads appear singly or in small clusters.

The fruit is an achene with a whitish pappus of bristles which may be fused into points.