Pentachaeta bellidiflora is a small annual wildflower growing from a slender taproot, which, although it appears smooth, is actually covered by fine hairs.

White-rayed Pentachaeta leaves are normally narrowly linear, ciliate (fringed with hair) and green, measuring less than 4.5 cm (1.8 in) long and one millimeter wide.

Like all of its genus, P. bellidiflora has green phyllaries in two to three generally equal series, lanceolate to obovate, with margins widely scarious (dry and membranous), and a naked receptacle.

It is currently known only to survive in serpentine bunchgrass communities and native prairies in two small areas of San Mateo County, including populations in Edgewood County Park and on San Francisco Water District lands at serpentine outcrops on the eastern slopes of Crystal Springs Reservoir, in the vicinity of State Route 92.

[6] As of the declaration of Federal endangerment status, the finding of the United States Environmental Protection Agency was that the total species population was sufficiently small and fragmented that it was subject to stochastic extinction.

[7] Recent habitat destruction by urban development, off road vehicle use and actions of highway maintenance crews have been responsible for the severe reduction in range and viability of this species.