Perennials, (20-)30-70 cm; taprooted. Stems loosely tomentose, not glandular. Leaf blades narrowly oblanceolate, 3-8 cm × 3-6 mm (gradually smaller distally, becoming linear), bases not clasping, decurrent 5-14 mm, margins flat, faces concolor, loosely tomentose, sessile-glandular beneath tomentum. Heads in loose to dense, corymbiform to paniculiform arrays. Involucres turbinate-campanulate, (4-)5-6 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4(-5) series, whitish (hyaline or opaque, usually shiny, sometimes dull), ovate to ovate-oblong (outer broadly acute, inner rounded-apiculate), glabrous. Pistillate florets 35-55. Bisexual florets (2-)4-7. Cypselae ridged, densely papillate-roughened.

Flowering Jun-Sep(-Oct). Dry, sandy road banks, roadside ditches, streambeds and banks, lakeshores, granitic sand, open woods of yellow pine, Jeffrey pine, red fir, Douglas fir, mixed conifer, and mixed evergreen; (50-)300-2300(-2500) m; Alta., B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.