Plants (6-)15-35 cm. Stolons 3-8(-12) cm (leaves along stolons almost equal to those of rosettes at ends). Basal leaves 1-nerved (sometimes obscurely 3-nerved), spatulate to narrowly or broadly obovate (petiolate), 14-48 × 2.5-20 mm, tips mucronate, faces abaxially tomentose, adaxially gray-pubescent to floccose-glabrescent. Cauline leaves linear, 8-35 mm, distal flagged. Heads 4-8(-13) in corymbiform arrays. Involucres: staminate (very uncommon) 6 mm; pistillate 6-9 mm. Phyllaries distally white or cream Corollas: staminate 3.5 mm; pistillate 3.5-6 mm. Cypselae 0.9-1.5 mm, minutely papillate; pappi: staminate 4 mm; pistillate 5.5-7 mm. 2n = 56, 84 (under A. neodioica).

Flowering mid spring-early summer. Pastures, dry fields, openings in woodlands and forests, and rock barrens and dry lake shores; 0-2200 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Colo., Conn., Del., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.

Subspecies neodioica is most common in the eastern half of the range of Antennaria howellii; it is also found sporadically as far west as Washington and British Columbia. Antennaria virginica is likely the primary sexual progenitor of apomicts in subsp. neodioica (R. J. Bayer 1985).