Plants 30-60 cm. Leaves crowded, gray; blades 1-nerved, linear, 20-40 × ca. 1 mm, faces tomentose, eglandular; distalmost overtopping arrays. Heads 5-10+ in compact, racemiform arrays, or terminal glomerules. Involucres 9.5-12 mm. Phyllaries 12-20, mostly chartaceous, apices spreading, acuminate. Florets 5-7; corollas pale yellow, 8-10.7 mm, tubes hairy, throats gradually dilated , lobes 1.2-1.7 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Upland slopes, tablelands; 200-2900 m; Ariz., Colo., Nebr., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.

Variety howardii grows within and east of the Rocky Mountains.