Plants 5-60 cm. Stems erect, tan to brown, glabrous. Leaves: basal withering before flowering; cauline margins entire, faces usually eglandular, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular, abaxial glabrous or villous. Heads borne ± singly, at ends of branchlets. Involucres cylindric to narrowly obconic, 4-6 mm. Phyllaries purple-tipped, faces glabrous, stipitate-glandular or gland-dotted; inner scarious. Disc florets 3-10; corollas white to pale lavender (color more intense in tubes); style-branch appendages truncate-penicillate, 0.1-0.3 mm. Pappi tan, equal to or shorter than cypselae.