Shrubs, 10-70 cm, broomlike. Flowering stems silvery-pannose, dotted with glandular blisters. Leaf blades (flowering stems) filiform to acerose, 3-20+ (× ca. 1) mm. Peduncles 0-3+ mm. Involucres turbinate to cylindric, 7-8 mm. Phyllaries 8-13, ovate to elliptic, pannose-tomentose. Florets 3; corollas 8-9.5 mm. Cypselae ca. 4 mm, 5-nerved, densely pilose; pappi 5-8 mm.

Flowering late summer. Gypseous soils, desert basins; 1100-1200 m; N.Mex., Tex.