Camissonia confertiflora is a stout annual herb 6-20 inches in height. The stems branch both at the base and above. They are densely hairy below with short, stiff hairs that combine with soft, glandular hairs above. The basal leaves are in a well-developed rosette and are oblanceolate in shape and pinnate in arrangement. The lateral pinnate leaves have small leaflets alternating with shorter pinnules. The sparsely hairy terminal leaflet is lance-ovate with inconspicuous yellowish-brown oil cells underneath. The flowers are dense and flat-topped or convex in bud. The mature flowers are elongate and have glandular hairs. The sepals have conspicuous free tails that arise from below the apices. The tails have a median row of light-brown oil cells. Petals, stamens and style are bright yellow, as is the inside of the hypanthium, which is red-dotted at the base, with the color fading to purple. The stamens are of two lengths and the style exceeds the anthers at maturity.

Stout annual herb 15-50 cm tall, branched and the base and above, with a well-developed basal rosette; stems densely villous at the base, mixed with shorter strigose pubescence, and villous above with short glandular pubescence. Basal leaves oblanceolate, 7-20 cm long, pinnate, the lateral leaflets to 2 cm long, alternating with shorter pinnules, or reduced; terminal leaflet lance-ovate, to 5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, sparsely villous, the oil cells below yellowish-brown, inconspicuous. Inflorescence dense and corymbiform in bud, later elongating, glandular-puberulent. Mature buds 12-16 mm long. Hypanthium 3-5 mm long, 3-5 mm wide at summit, glandular-puberulent without, short-villous within. Sepals 9-12 mm long, 2.5-4 mm wide at the base, glandular-pubescent, or with a few scattered white trichomes. Free caudate portions of the sepals conspicuous, arising just below the apices, these with a median row of light-brown oil cells. Petals 12-18 mm long, 12-17 mm wide, bright yellow, of same color as stamens, style, and inside of hypanthium, red-dotted at the base, fading purplish. Stamens in two sets, the long with filament 6-8 mm. Long; the shorter 4-5 mm long. Anthers 4-6 mm long, ciliate. Style 11-18 mm long, well exceeding the anthers at maturity. Ovary slender, 15-25 mm long, on a pedicel 5-15 mm long, glandular pubescent; immature capsule to 35 mm long. Seeds not known. (Raven 1962).

The free caudate tips and the densely packed flowers (as referred to in the specific epithet "confertiflora" meaning crowded flowers) are diagnostic features. The species is distinguished from C. multijuga by its larger flowers, drooping inflorescence and large buds and from C. brevipes by its glandular sepals, unequal stamens, and uniformly branched habit (as Oenothera in Raven 1962).