Plants 5-120 cm, self-compatible (heads not showy). Stems prox-imally villous to hispid, gland-ular-pubescent distally, glands yellowish or black, lateral branches sometimes surpassing main stems. Leaf blades linear to lance-linear, 2-10 cm × 2-7 mm. Heads usually in crowded glomerules, sometimes in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres narrowly ovoid or ellipsoid, 5.5-9 mm. Phyllaries ± pilose and glandular-pubescent, glands yellowish or black, apices erect or reflexed, ± flat. Paleae mostly persistent, distinct. Ray florets 0 or 1-3; corollas greenish yellow to purplish, laminae 1-3 mm. Disc florets 1-5(-12), bisexual, fertile; corollas 3-4.5 mm, pubescent; anthers ± dark purple. Ray cypselae black, dull, compressed, beakless. Disc cypselae similar. 2n = 28. Flowering Jun-Sep. Openings in grasslands, meadows, swales, shrublands, woodlands, forests, edges of marshes, lakes, or watercourses, disturbed sites, often in coarse, sandy or gravelly soils; 0-3100 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nev., N.Dak., N.Mex., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wyo. Madia glomerata has the most extensive North American distribution of any species in Madiinae. At southern latitudes, M. glomerata occurs mostly in montane settings. Occurrences in eastern North America are mostly local and widely scattered.

Plant: Annual 1.5-8(12) dm, strongly ill-scented; stems simple below or with stiff ascending branches, very leafy, soft-hairy to ± bristly, especially below, stalked-glandular above; glands yellow Leaves: 2-10 cm, mostly cauline, generally opposite below, alternate above, often with axillary clusters, generally ascending, loosely strigose, often bristly-ciliate, entire to slightly toothed; upper glandular INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads discoid or inconspicuously radiate, ± sessile to short-peduncled, in dense cymes or panicle-like clusters; involucre (including chaff) 5.5-9 mm, narrowly ovoid or ellipsoid, sometimes curved; phyllaries 0-3, soft-hairy or ± bristly, ± glandular, tips flat; chaff scales 1-few, free, ± like phyllaries Flowers: Ray flowers 0-3; corolla tubes 1-3.5 mm, ligules 1.5-3 mm, 2-3-lobed, greenish yellow or purple-tinged; Disk flowers 1-5(12), fertile; corollas 3-4.5 mm; anthers black; anther tips triangular-ovate; style tips linear to oblong, acute, bristly Fruit: Fruits achenes, alike, 4-6 mm, oblanceolate, compressed side-to-side, glabrous, black; beak 0; pappus 0 Misc: Forest openings; 1050-2700 m.; Jul-Sep