Perennials (perhaps flowering first or second year), 30-50(-150) cm. Stems erect, stramineous to pinkish, usually villosulous to hirtellous and/or stipitate-glandular, sometimes glabrate. Cauline leaf blades mostly ovate to oblong, (7-)15-30(-55) mm, lengths 2-4 times widths, bases ± clasping, margins crenate (teeth mostly 3-5 per cm, blunt, resin-tipped), apices obtuse to acute, faces usually hirtellous and little, if at all, gland-dotted, sometimes glabrate (then gland-dotted). Heads borne singly or in open to crowded, corymbiform arrays. Involucres broadly urceolate to globose, 8-13 × 12-22 mm (often subtended by leaflike bracts). Phyllaries in 5-6 series, reflexed to spreading, linear to lanceolate, apices subulate to terete, ± recurved to straight (terminal setae incurved), moderately to strongly resinous. Ray florets 18-25; laminae 8-11 mm. Cypselae stramineous to light brown, (2-)3-3.5 mm, apices smooth to minutely coronate, faces smooth or striate (angles ± ribbed); pappi of 2 ± straight, usually smooth (apices usually dilated), setiform awns 4-7 mm, ± equaling disc corollas. 2n = 12.

Flowering Jun-Sep(-Oct). Open sites, rocky slopes of limestone, dry gravelly washes, alluvium; 1100-2000 m; N.Mex., Tex.