Aerial flowering stems 1-1.5(-2) dm, bractless or with 1 leaflike bract ca. midlength. Leaf blades usually linear-oblanceolate, 1.5-3 × 0.2-0.5 cm, densely lanate to tomentose on both surfaces. Involucres usually campanulate; tubes 3-4.5 mm; teeth 2.5-3.5 mm. Flowers (5-)6-9 mm; perianth cream or ochroleucous.

Flowering May-Jul. Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities; 200-1400(-1900) m; Idaho, Wash.

Variety leucophaeum comprises a series of populations scattered in eastern Washington (Adams, Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas, Lincoln, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens, and Whitman counties) and adjacent Idaho (Gooding and Kootenai counties); a few outlying ones in Elmore and Valley counties are questionably assigned to this taxon.