General: Annual herb from a short taproot; stems prostrate and matted, much-branched, rarely erect and simple in dwarfed forms, woolly-hairy, 8-20 cm long.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves opposite, lance-linear, lance-oblong or lance-triangular, whitish woolly-hairy, 4-15 mm long, 1.5 mm wide.
Flowers: Heads disciform, usually solitary in leaf axils or at tips of branches; involucres lacking; receptacular bracts hooded and balloonlike, 2.5-4.0 mm long at maturity; female flowers mostly 50-80, rarely as few as 20 in dwarfed forms.
Fruits: Achenes nerveless, more or less cylindric, glabrous, tipped with a small, offset style, 1.0-2.0 mm long; pappus lacking.
The three Psilocarphus species in B.C. are similar in appearance, but the range of P. brevissimus does not overlap that of other species (Douglas et al. 1998b).