Plants (3-)4-10 × 5-15 dm. Aerial flowering stems glabrous. Leaves: blade lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 2.5-3.5(-4) × (0.4-)0.5-0.8(-1.2) cm, margins plane. Inflorescence branches glabrous. Perianths white. 2n = 40.

Flowering Jun-Oct. White or red wind-blown sands on flats, washes and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 1200-2200 m; Ariz., Utah.

Variety papiliunculi occurs from Emery, Garfield, Kane, and San Juan counties, Utah, southward to Apache, Coconino, and Navajo counties, Arizona, and just enters San Juan County, New Mexico.