Shrubs, 50-70(-90) cm. Stems white (sparsely tomentose) or brown (glabrous). Leaves bright to dull green, blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, (1.5-)2-3 × 0.2-0.4 cm, often with irregular lobes, sparsely hairy or glabrescent, viscid. Heads (2-3 per branch, erect, sessile) in (sparsely leafy) arrays 12-20 × 1-2 cm. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 3-4 × 2-3(-4) mm. Phyllaries narrowly lanceolate, acute (outer) or obtuse, sparsely hairy. Florets 4-8. Cypselae 1-2.3 mm. 2n = 18, 36, 72.

Flowering mid-late summer. Wet mountain meadows, stream banks, rocky areas with late-lying snows; 2000-3300 m; Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.

Subspecies viscidula is the common silver sagebrush of the intermountain region of western North America. In New Mexico, it is known only from Rio Arriba County. It is distinguished from subsp. bolanderi by geography as well as its darker green foliage and sparsely (rather than densely) tomentose or glabrous stems. Usually restricted to wet meadows and stream banks, it is distinctive in the late summer and fall by its yellowing ephemeral leaves.