Plants 19-30 cm. Stolons 1.5-4.5 cm. Basal leaves spatulate to narrowly cuneate, 10-20 mm, faces gray-pubescent. Cauline leaves 9-26 mm. Heads usually 6-12. Involucres: pistillate 6.5-8 mm. Phyllaries distally white, pink, green, red, or brown. Corollas: pistillate 3.5-6 mm. Pappi: pistillate 5-6 mm. 2n = 42, 56, (70).

Flowering summer. Dry to moist habitats, tundra, rock outcrops, fields, meadows, forests, savannas, and roadcuts, other similarly disturbed places; 0-3800 m; Alta., B.C., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif. (unconfirmed), Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Subspecies arida is most closely related to Antennaria microphylla (R. J. Bayer 1989e), as shown by their similar morphologies.