Shrubs, rounded, usually sparsely branched, 5-15 × 6-15(-20) dm. Leaf blades oblanceolate or spatulate to obovate, 0.5-1.5 × 0.2-0.6 cm, glabrous to slightly tomentose abaxially. Inflores-cences (5-)10-20 × (5-)8-25 cm; branches rather diffuse, with racemosely arranged involucres at tips, stout, round, smooth, glabrous, not spinose. Involucres campanulate, 2-2.5 × 2-2.5 mm. Flowers (2.5-)3-4 mm; perianth yellowish white.

Flowering May-Nov. Sandy to gravelly washes, and slopes, mixed grassland and chaparral communities, oak and conifer woodlands; 900-1700 m; Calif.

Variety heermannii is infrequently encountered in widely scattered locations in the Transverse Ranges of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It is disjunct in the Caliente Mountains of San Luis Obispo County and apparently was first encountered somewhere along Poso Creek in Kern County, although it has not been collected there since the type was collected in 1853.