Plants 2-8 × 5-15 dm. Aerial flowering stems white-tomentose to floccose. Leaves: blade linear-lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 1.5-3.5 × (0.2-)0.3-1 cm, margins plane or infrequently revolute. Inflorescence branches tomentose, rarely floccose. Perianths white.

Flowering Jun-Oct. White or infrequently red blow sand on flats, washes and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, ephedra, and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 1200-2100 m; Ariz., Colo., N.Mex., Utah.

Variety ramosissimum is the more common of the expressions in the species. It occurs in Emery, Garfield, San Juan, and Wayne counties in Utah, and in Montezuma County, Colorado. It is common in Apache, western Coconino, and Navajo counties, Arizona, and in San Juan County, New Mexico.