Annuals (fragrant), 15-60 cm; taprooted or fibrous-rooted. Stems glandular-puberulent (without persistent tomentum, stipitate glands 0.1-0.2 mm, stalks narrower than gland widths. Leaf blades linear to linear-lanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 1.5-5.5 cm × 1.5-10 mm, bases not clasping, not decurrent, margins flat, faces bicolor, abaxial white to gray, tomentose, adaxial green, both minutely stipitate-glandular. Heads in corymbiform arrays. Involucres turbinate-campanulate, 5-6 mm. Phyllaries in 4-6 series, white to tawny white (hyaline, shiny), narrowly ovate to oblong, glabrous. Pistillate florets 47-78. Bisexual florets (7-)11-20. Cypselae ridged, smooth.

Flowering Sep-Oct. Dry woods and openings, roadsides; 10-600 m; Ga., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., Wis.

Pseudognaphalium micradenium has a more northern and Appalachian distribution than P. helleri. A report of P. micradenium for Louisiana probably was based on specimens of P. helleri. The two species differ in vestiture and other features; stems of P. micradenium are more slender than those of its close relatives.