Involucral bracts acute. Fruits dark brown to black, ribs inconspicuous, fruit surface smooth to slightly tuberculate, not mucilaginous when wetted.

Flowering late spring-early fall. Gravelly or sandy soils, pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa pine forests; 300-2300[-2600] m; Ariz., Colo., N.Mex., Tex., Utah; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí).