Rio Grande fleabane

Annuals, 15–40 cm; slenderly taprooted. Stems initially erect, later ascending to decumbent (herbaceous), proximally spreading- to deflexed-villous, closely to loosely strigose on distal ¹ / 3 – ¹ / 2 , eglandular. Leaves basal (often drying translucent, often withering by flowering) and cauline; basal (thin) blades oblanceolate to obovate or spatulate, 10–80(–140) × 5–34 mm, cauline slightly or gradually reduced to distal ¹ / 3 of stems (bases clasping), margins usually with 1–4 pairs of teeth or lobes, sometimes entire, faces sparsely short-hirsute to hirsuto-villous, eglandular. Heads (1–)3–10(–20) in diffuse arrays (branches from distal ² / 3 ). Involucres 2.5–3 × 5–10 mm. Phyllaries in 2–4 series, hirsute to sparsely villous, minutely glandular. Ray florets 95–160(–250); corollas white to bluish, 2.5–4 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 1.7–2 mm. Cypselae 0.6–0.8 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 10–13(–15) bristles. 2n = 18.

Flowering Feb–May. Brushlands, palm woods, roadsides, disturbed sites; 0–50 m; Tex.; Mexico (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas).