It looks like a weedy daisy, bearing heads of elegant white-petaled flowers.

The ligules of the flowers are often striped with lavender or pink on the undersides, a feature most noticeable when the heads are closed.

Each fruit has a pappus of stiff white or light brown hairs.

It is among the first plants to sprout up in areas recently cleared by fire.

[1] It is native to most of the southwestern United States as far north as Oregon, and to Baja California in Mexico.