Annual herb, 0.2–1.5 m high; stems simple proximally, branching distally, sparsely puberulous. Leaves alternate or subopposite, membranous, sessile, narrowly lanceolate or oblong, 1.5–10 cm long, 0.2–2 cm wide, base auriculate and semi-amplexicaul, margins serrate-crenate or almost entire, apex acute, scabridulous above, densely scabridulous and glandular beneath. Capitula 5–8 mm long, homogamous, in terminal lax leafy panicles; stalks of individual capitula slender, short, but seemingly up to 4 cm long, widened, glandular, and with several bracts/phyllaries just below the capitulum; phyllaries pale with a green midrib, linear, 2–5 mm long, acute, glandular, the outermost pilose proximally, becoming reflexed after achenes are dispersed; receptacle slightly honeycombed. Florets orange-yellow, many, in Asian material with radiate female flowers but in ours all tubular with some of the outer 4-lobed (see note), tube cylindric, 2.8–3.5 mm long, lobes 0.2–0.3 mm long, glandular, anthers 1.4–1.5 mm long, style 3–3.8 mm long. Achenes narrowly ellipsoid, 1–1.2 mm long, pubescent; pappus 2–3.5 mm long. Fig. 65.
