Plants annual. Stems 4–6, [erect] sprawling, green to gray-green, 1.5–15 dm, stellate-canescent, hairs few, slender, long, soft. Leaf blades gray-green, triangular or cordiform, rounded, unlobed or 3–5-lobed, 1.5–4.5 cm, sometimes wider than long, not rugose, base typically cordate, margins coarsely toothed, surfaces stellate-canescent. Inflorescences paniculate, open, flowers clustered, tip appearing leafy; involucellar bractlets green to tan. Flowers: sepals 5–7 mm; petals orange [salmon-orange], [6–]8–11[–20] mm; anthers yellow. Schizocarps ± hemispheric; mericarps 15, 1.5–2 × 2–2.5 mm, chartaceous, nonreticulate dehiscent part flat on top, 30% of height, projecting toward fruit axis, reticulations often blackish, indehiscent part not notably wider than dehiscent part. Seeds 1 per mericarp, brown or black, glabrous or pubescent. 2n = 10.

Flowering winter–spring. Dry sandy places; 50–800 m; Ariz., Calif.; Mexico (Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora).