Plants erect, (0.8-)1.5-4(-5) × 2-5(-8) dm. Aerial flowering stems erect, 1-2.5 dm, glabrous. Leaves: blade linear to oblanceolate, 3-10 × 0.1-0.7 cm, tomentose abaxially, less so to thinly floccose and green adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences cymose, usually divided 3 or more times, (3-)5-25 cm; branches glabrous. Involucres 1 per node, turbinate to turbinate-campanulate, 2-4 × (1-)1.5-2.5(-3) mm, glabrous. Flowers (2-)2.5-3 mm; perianth yellow, rarely white or cream, glabrous.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Sandy to clayey flats, washes and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities, juniper or montane conifer woodlands; 1400-3000 m; Colo., Idaho, Nebr., S.Dak., Utah, Wyo.

Variety brevicaule is widely scattered in northwestern and north-central Colorado, southeastern Idaho, western Nebraska, southwestern South Dakota, northern Utah, and Wyoming. Plants with white or cream-colored perianths occur in southwestern Wyoming and have been called var. grangerense. Hybrids involving var. brevicaule and E. corymbosum var. corymbosum are known from southwestern Wyoming.