E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Annual from a fibrous root; stems leafless, solitary to more often several, exuding milky juice when broken, 3-45 cm tall.

Leaves:
Mainly basal, oblanceolate to occasionally linear or lanceolate, entire to toothed or pinnatifid, 1-15 cm long, 0.1-1.5 cm wide.

Flowers:
Heads with strap-shaped flowers, solitary; involucres narrowly bell-shaped to rounded, 5-22 mm tall; involucral bracts in 1-2 series, lanceolate, abruptly sharp-pointed to attenuate, more or less long-hairy with septate, twisted hairlike growths, some of these purplish due to purplish cross-walls in the hairs; receptacles naked; ray flowers yellow, commonly pinkish upon drying.

Fruits:
Achenes several-ribbed or slightly winged, spindle-shaped, the body about 1-5 mm long, tapering to a slender beak about 2-3.5 times as long as the body; pappus of numerous hairlike bristles, 4-7 mm long, white.