Plants perennial, sometimes nearly acaulescent. Stems decumbent to erect, elongate, glandular-pubescent, infrequently glabrous. Leaves: petiole 1-4 cm; blade ovate elliptic-oblong to ovate, 1.5-6 × 0.5-3.5 cm, margins entire to sinuate, often undulate, adaxial surface glabrous or puberulent, abaxial surface thinly puberulent to pubescent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts ovate to obovate, 5-20 × 3-10 mm, scarious, apex obtuse to acute, glandular-pubescent to villous; flowers 25-75. Perianth: tube rose to greenish, 10-20 mm, limb white, 5-8 mm diam. Fruits broadly turbinate, apex truncate or rounded and slightly beaked, or fruit ± rhombic in profile, 5-12 × 4-8.5 mm, scarious, tapered at both ends; wings (2-)5 (often 2 on periphery of inflorescence and folded together), dilated distally and flattened perpendicular to plane of lamina, dilations longer than wide, thin walled, cavities extending throughout.

Flowering spring-fall. Sandy or gravelly soils, desert grasslands, scrub; 700-2500 m; Ariz., Colo., Nev., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.