Stiff-branched wirelettuce

Annuals, 0–100 cm. Stems single, branched (branches nearly at right angles, stiff), glabrous. Leaves withered at flowering; basal blades oblanceolate, 6–10 cm, margins entire or toothed (teeth minute, faces glabrous); cauline much reduced, bractlike. Heads borne singly along branches or in paniculiform arrays . Peduncles 2–10 mm. Calyculi of appressed bractlets. Involucres 6–9 mm. Florets 5. Cypselae light to dark tan, 3.8–4.2 mm, faces slightly bumpy to tuberculate, (grooved); pappi of 15–18 tan bristles (connate in groups of 2–4, bases persistent), plumose to tops of bases. 2n = 16.

Flowering Jun–Sep. Open, sandy or volcanic soils, plains and foothills, often growing as weed along roads; 200–1400 m; Calif., Idaho, Oreg., Wash.