Shrubs, 10-30 cm; caudices woody, very branched, bark tan to dark gray, fibrous with age. Stems ascending, green becoming tan, glabrous or puberulent, resin-dotted to resinous. Leaves ascending to spreading; sessile; blades with faint midnerves, linear to oblanceolate, 10-40 × 1-2.5 mm, flat or sulcate, usually not twisted, margins eciliate or sparsely puberulent, apices acute to apiculate, faces usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent, usually gland-dotted, resinous. Heads in dense cymiform arrays (to 5 cm wide), sometimes overtopped by distal leaves. Involucres cylindric to obconic, (5-)6-8 × 2-4 mm. Phyllaries 12-18 in 3-4 series, in weak vertical ranks, mostly tan, greenish apically, midnerves evident and ± expanded distally, ovate to elliptic, unequal, 1.5-7 × 1-1.8 mm, chartaceous, weakly keeled, margins scarious, ciliate to lacerate, apices acute to obtuse-rounded, faces glabrous or gland-dotted. Disc florets 5-7; corollas 4.5-6.5 mm, lobes 1.2-1.7 mm; style branches 2.5-3.8 mm, appendages 0.8-1.2 mm. Cypselae reddish brown, cylindric to turbinate, 4-5 mm, 5-10-nerved, faces glabrous; pappi tan (fine), 3.5-5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering summer-fall. Open woods (oak or ponderosa pine) and dry meadows; 1700-2900 m; Colo., Nev., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.