Plants annual, scapose, erect, 5-25 cm, glabrous, sometimes glaucous. Leaves basal; blade with ultimate lobes acute. Inflorescences 1-flowered; buds nodding or sometimes erect. Flowers: receptacle conic, cup without spreading free rim; calyx acuminate, glabrous, sometimes glaucous; petals yellow, (10-)12-25 mm. Capsules 4-7 cm. Seeds tan to brown, spheric, 1.2-1.8 mm, minutely pitted. 2 n = 14.

Flowering spring (Mar-May). Desert washes, flats, slopes; 50-1500 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah.

Eschscholzia glyptosperma is known from the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.