The leaves are small and 5-lobed leaves with a bitter taste that gives it one of its common names. After blooming it gets a white seed head much like that of a dandelion, but smaller. A typical orange globemallow generally of one or a few stems and loose elongate many-flowered heads, found on rocky slopes. It is often quite bushy, and is found mainly in the lower elevations. It grows on shales and mudstones, only in soil that contains the element selenium, so is poisonous to wildlife and cattle as well as humans.
Leaves are small, opposite, slightly toothed toward the ends.
The flowers are very small, and red to reddish-brown, and since the leaves are often rather reddish then, they are not really obvious. Our larger ones are usually along the Canyon Overlook trail.