General: Perennial herb with milky juice, from somewhat fleshy roots; stems usually several, simple or branched, 15-60 cm tall, hairless to hairy, leafless but with several scale-like bracts, enlarged below the flower heads.
Leaves: All basal, oblong-lance-shaped, wavy-toothed or divided, somewhat glaucous on undersurface, spreading-hairy on both sides.
Flowers: Heads yellow, open in sunny or dull weather, of ray flowers only; involucral bracts 10-15 mm high (up to 25 mm in fruit), overlapping, hairless or stiffly hairy; usually several heads, at ends of branches.
Fruits: Achenes, cylindrical, veined, minutely roughened, orange-brown, slender-beaked; pappus of feathery bristles.
Ecology: Roadsides, lawns, pastures, disturbed ground; common at low elevations in and around settled areas, especially in the southern half of our region, also found north to the Queen Charlotte Islands and scattered near towns in southeast Alaska.