Stems 5-25 cm. Inflorescences mostly confined to tips of branches, globose to ovoid, 7-14 × 8-15 mm; bracts ascending or appressed, oblong to broadly ovate or elliptic, 4-9 mm, ± rigid, margins flat, undulate, or sometimes revolute, white, scarious portion 0.5-1 mm wide; midveins thin, lateral veins thickened and prominent adaxially. Flowers: perianth 2.5-3 mm; tube 19-30% of perianth length; tepals white or pink; perianth tube and base of tepals often ± crisped or undulate; stamens 8. Achenes dark brown, ovate-lanceolate, 1.3-2.1 mm, reticulate with longitudinal ridges, dull.

Flowering May-Aug. Dry beds of ponds and watercourses, roadsides, drainage pits; 500-1800 m; Alta.; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash., Wyo.