Perennials, 30-100 cm. Stems 2-5. Leaves: basal rosettes persistent (faces green and glabrous or gray-green and sparsely hairy). Heads in arrays 10-22 × 1-3(-7) cm. Involucres turbinate, 2-3 × 2(-3) mm.

Flowering mid-late summer. Sandy soils, arid regions; 100-2500 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Sask.; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Throughout western North America, members of the Artemisia campestris complex can be assigned to subsp. pacifica. Although morphologically distinct through much of its range, subsp. pacifica may intergrade with subsp. canadensis and A. borealis in areas where their ranges overlap.