Plants 5–120 cm, self-compatible (heads not showy). Stems prox-imally villous to hispid, gland-ular-pubescent distally, glands yellowish or black, lateral branches sometimes surpassing main stems. Leaf blades linear to lance-linear, 2–10 cm × 2–7 mm. Heads usually in crowded glomerules, sometimes in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres narrowly ovoid or ellipsoid, 5.5–9 mm. Phyllaries ± pilose and glandular-pubescent, glands yellowish or black, apices erect or reflexed, ± flat. Paleae mostly persistent, distinct. Ray florets 0 or 1–3; corollas greenish yellow to purplish, laminae 1–3 mm. Disc florets 1–5(–12), bisexual, fertile; corollas 3–4.5 mm, pubescent; anthers ± dark purple. Ray cypselae black, dull, compressed, beakless. Disc cypselae similar. 2n = 28.

Flowering Jun–Sep. Openings in grasslands, meadows, swales, shrublands, woodlands, forests, edges of marshes, lakes, or watercourses, disturbed sites, often in coarse, sandy or gravelly soils; 0–3100 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nev., N.Dak., N.Mex., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wyo.

Madia glomerata has the most extensive North American distribution of any species in Madiinae. At southern latitudes, M. glomerata occurs mostly in montane settings. Occurrences in eastern North America are mostly local and widely scattered.