small tarweed

Madia exigua is an aromatic annual herb growing up to 50 cm (20 in) tall its slender stem coated with hairs, large stalked resin glands, and sometimes bristles. The rough-haired leaves are up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long. The inflorescence is an array of clustered flower heads on thin, stiff peduncles. Each head has an involucre of phyllaries shaped like a top. The phyllaries are coated in knobby yellow resin glands. At the tip of the inflorescence are minute yellowish ray florets each under a millimeter long, and one or two yellow disc florets. The fruit is an achene with no pappus.

Madia exigua is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California, where it grows in many types of dry habitat outside the deserts.