[1][2] Pogogyne tenuiflora is a small, aromatic annual herb, with inflorescences consisting of flowers in bracteate verticils forming dense terminal spikes.

[3][4] The two sterile upper anthers place this species within the Hedeomoides subgenus of Pogogyne, which was recognized as its own genus by John Isaac Briquet in 1896.

[5][6] During his visit, Palmer only saw this species very rarely among the sagebrush habitat on the eastern side of the island.

[7] By 1875, the feral goats, introduced years before by humans, had already started to devastate the environment of the island, leaving Palmer as the only person to document a number of species on the island that have also gone extinct, like the paleo-endemic monotypic olive relative Hesperelaea palmeri.

[6][2] Ira Wiggins thought P. tenuiflora to 'probably' be extinct in his 1980 flora of the Baja California peninsula (including Guadalupe Island).