Plants pulvinate and cespitose, 0.3-1.5(-1.8) × 1-2.5 dm. Aerial flowering stems erect or nearly so, usually scapelike, (0.2-)0.4-1.5 dm, glabrous. Leaves: blade  narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 0.3-2 × 0.2-0.5(-0.7) cm, densely white-tomentose abaxially, floccose and greenish adaxially, margins crenulate. Inflorescences capitate or open and umbellate, 1-5 cm; branches absent or typically glabrous. Involucres 3-7(-9) per cluster, turbinate, 1.5-3 × 1-2.5 mm, glabrous or thinly floccose. Flowers 2-3 mm; perianth greenish- to creamy- or pale yellowish-white, rarely pale yellow or yellow, glabrous.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Gravelly to rocky, mostly limestone slopes and ridge tops, high-elevation sagebrush communities, subalpine conifer woodlands; 2400-2600 m; Utah.

Variety nanum is restricted to the Wasatch Mountains in Box Elder and Weber counties.