Annuals or biennials, rarely short-lived perennials. Stems usually 1 (sometimes more), erect, glabrous, puberulent, or canescent, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular; branches ascending. Mid leaf blades lanceolate to linear. Peduncles equaling or longer than involucres. Involucres campanulate to broadly turbinate, 6-10 (-12) mm. Phyllaries in 4-8 series, usually appressed, sometimes spreading, rarely reflexed; apices usually glabrous or moderately stipitate-glandular, rarely canescent. Ray florets pistillate, fertile. Cypselae sparsely appressed-hairy.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Grasslands, creosote bush scrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, pine forests; 1000-2300 m; Ariz., Colo., Kans., N.Mex., Tex., Wyo.; Mexico (Chihuahua).

Variety glabra is found in the western Great Plains, southern Rocky Mountain foothills, and Chihuahuan Desert.