Plants perennial. Stems ascending, infrequently procumbent, un-branched to few branched, elongate, often whitish, viscid-puberulent to glandular-pubescent. Leaves: petiole 1-4.5 cm; blade lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, 2.5-5 × 0.5-3 cm, margins entire to ± repand and undulate, adaxial surface glabrous, abaxial surface glabrous or puberulent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts ovate, 4-8 × 2-5 mm, papery, apex acute to acuminate, glandular-pubescent, sometimes villous basally; flowers 15-30. Perianth: tube greenish, 8-16 mm, limb pale pink to light magenta, 5-7 mm diam. Fruits turbinate, 4-17 × 3-5 mm, scarious, apex broadly obtuse and beaked; wings 5, thin walled, truncate and conspicuously dilated distally, dilations as wide as long and flattened perpendicular to plane of lamina, cavities extending throughout.

Flowering spring-fall. Calcareous or gypseous, clay or silty soils, shrublands; 1000-1600 m; Colo., N.Mex., Tex.