Plants 15-120 cm. Stems whitish, nearly leafless at flowering, loosely tomentose. Leaves mostly grayish white; blades 1-nerved, filiform, 15-30 × 0.5-1 mm, faces tomentulose. Involucres 10.5-12.5 mm. Phyllaries 14-18(-25), apices erect, acute to acuminate, abaxial faces tomentulose. Corollas 9-11 mm, tubes glabrous or puberulent, lobes 0.8-1.5 mm, glabrous; style appendages longer than stigmatic portions. Cypselae glabrous; pappi 7.2-11 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Dry slopes and mesas; 1300-2200 m; Ariz., Colo., N.Mex., Utah.