This is an annual herb producing an erect, hairy, glandular stem up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) tall. The leaves are linear in shape and up to 8 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a series of dense clusters of flower heads surrounded by long, narrow bracts covered in obvious bulbous glands. The sticky, glandular flower head has a center of several disc florets surrounded by a few white, yellow, or red ray florets. Each ray floret has three lobes at the tip, the middle lobe being shortest. The fruit is an achene; those developing from the disc florets have a pappus of scales.
