Plants 70-250 cm. Stems greenish, usually leafy, compactly tomentose . Leaves yellowish green; blades 1-nerved, filiform to linear, 20-50 × 0.8-1 mm, faces glabrate. Involucres 6.5-10 mm. Phyllaries 11-20, apices erect , acute, glabrous. Corollas 6-9 mm, tubes glabrous, lobes 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous; style appendages shorter than or equaling stigmatic portions. Cypselae hairy (sometimes glabrous in Idaho populations); pappi 4.2-7.6 mm. 2n = 18 (as Chrysothamnus nauseosus subsp. consimilis).

Flowering late summer-fall. Alkaline valleys and plains; 1200-3000 m; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Utah, Wyo.; Mexico (Baja California).

The names Chrysothamnus nauseosus subsp. consimilis and var. consimilis (Ericameria nauseosa subsp. consimilis) have been used for this taxon; an equivalent combination has not been made at the varietal level in Ericameria. Variety oreophila intergrades with vars. mohavensis and speciosa.