Plants 25-60 cm. Stems yellowish green, often leafless at flowering, densely, compactly tomentose. Leaves yellowish green; blades 1-nerved, filiform, 10-30 × 0.8-1 mm, faces glabrate . Involucres 8-11.5 mm. Phyllaries 17-31, apices erect, acute to obtuse, abaxial faces glabrous. Corollas 5-8.5 mm, tubes mostly glabrous, lobes 0.5-1.1 mm (erect to incurved), glabrous; style appendages longer than stigmatic portions. Cypselae glabrous; pappi 3-6.6 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Gravelly and sandy soils, rocky crevices; 700-2800 m; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Nev., Utah.