Plants (10–)20–55 cm, self-compatible (heads not showy). Stems hirsute, distally glandular-pubescent, glands yellowish, purple, or black, lateral branches rarely surpassing main stems. Leaf blades linear, 2–10 cm × 2–7 mm. Heads in open, racemiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres globose or depressed-globose, 6–10 mm. Phyllaries hirsute and glandular-pubescent, glands yellowish, purple, or black, apices erect or ± reflexed, flat. Paleae mostly persistent, connate ¹/4–¹/2+ their lengths. Ray florets 3–8; corollas greenish yellow, laminae 3–4.5 mm. Disc florets 3–8, bisexual, fertile; corollas 3.5–4 mm, pubescent; anthers ± dark purple. Ray cypselae black or purple, glossy, ± terete, beakless. Disc cypselae similar. 2n = 32.

Flowering Apr–Jun. Open, often grassy slopes in woodlands and chaparral; 0–500 m; Calif.

Madia anomala occurs locally in the North Coast Ranges, San Francisco Bay area, and Sutter Buttes (southern Sacramento Valley), sometimes with the morphologically similar M. gracilis.