Annuals, 25-60 cm; taproots slender to thick. Stems 1-12+, erect or ascending, straight and rigid, sometimes sprawling from base, branching from base and distally, glabrous, glaucous. Leaves mostly cauline; sessile (± appressed); blades oblanceolate, 20-30 × 3-5 mm, reduced distally, (thick, succulent) bases broadened, margins entire (incised to dentate in hybrids with A. parviflora) eciliate or with 1-8 cilia per side, apices linear, spiny-mucronate, glabrous; distal subulate, entire. Heads borne singly (terminal), often in loose, leafy, cymiform arrays. Involucres hemispheric, 10-12 × 10-16 mm (fresh). Phyllaries in 4-5 series, appressed, linear-lanceolate, 2-8 mm, bases whitish to tan, margins entire to laciniate, apices green, acute to acuminate, glabrous. Ray florets 50-80+; laminae bluish purple to lavender, 10-12 mm, coiled after flowering. Disc florets 45-100+; corollas yellow, 3.5-5 mm. Cypselae oblanceoloid, 2.5-3 mm, 11-13-nerved per face, faces sparsely sericeous; pappi: white, setose; ray 3-3.5 mm; disc 3-4 mm. 2n = 10.

Flowering Apr-Sep. Low valleys, saline soils on mudflats, edges of playas; 1300-1400 m; Ariz., N.Mex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas).

Arida riparia is a distinctive species recognized by its V -shaped branching, narrow, succulent, somewhat appressed, spiny-tipped leaves, and relatively large heads. It is known to hybridize with A. parviflora in southeastern Arizona and adjacent New Mexico. Specimens with dentate leaf margins usually represent hybrids.