Perennials, 3-10 cm; taprooted, caudices branched. Stems erect (scapiform), finely strigose, eglandular. Leaves mostly basal (persistent; leaf bases broadened or not, not thickened and whitish-indurate); blades linear, 4-20 × 0.7-1.5 mm, cauline bractlike or absent, margins entire, faces densely and finely strigose. Heads 1. Involucres 6-8.5 × 11-22 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3(-4) series, hispido-hirsutulous (hairs relatively thick-based), inconspicuously glandular. Ray florets 30-55; corollas white or pinkish, sometimes with an abaxial lilac midstripe or drying purplish, 7-11 mm (tube and lamina bases densely strigoso-hirsute), laminae coiling, sometimes tardily. Disc corollas 4.3-6 mm. Cypselae 2.8-3.2 mm, 2-nerved, margins sparsely to densely velutinous-ciliate, faces glabrous; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 15-25(-35) bristles.

Flowering May-Jun. Sandy sites, semi-barrens, salt desert shrub, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper; 1600-2100 m; Ariz., Colo., Utah.