Shrubs, spreading to erect, sparsely branched, 4-8 × 6-10 dm. Leaf blades oblanceolate to spatulate, 0.5-1.5 × 0.2-0.6 cm, mostly glabrous. Inflorescences (5-)10-20 × 5-8 cm; branches open, with numerous racemosely arranged involucres, slender and whiplike, round, smooth, glabrous, not spinose. Involucres campanulate, 1-1.5 × 1.5-3 mm. Flowers 2.5-3 mm; perianth white.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Limestone gravelly to rocky flats, slopes, and washes, saltbush, blackbrush, or sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper and montane conifer woodlands; 1200-1900 m; Nev.

Variety clokeyi is restricted to scattered locations mainly in the Spring (Charleston) Mountains and Sheep Range of Clark County, with outlying populations in the limestone mountains around Mercury and just entering Lincoln County in the Hiko Range.