Plants mostly 20-60 cm . Stems grayish to white, leafy, loosely tomentose . Leaves grayish green to white; blades 1-nerved, narrowly linear, 10-50 × 1-1.5 mm, faces loosely tomentose. Involucres 7-10.5 mm. Phyllaries 10-18, apices erect, mostly obtuse, abaxial faces tomentose, sometimes sparingly. Corollas 6.5-9 mm, tubes usually puberulent, rarely arachnose, lobes 1-2 mm, glabrous; style appendages longer than stigmatic portions. Cypselae densely hairy; pappi 5.2-7.2 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Plains and hills, often in barren alkaline soils; 300-2000 m; Alta., Sask.; Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nebr., N.Dak., S.Dak., Wyo.