Leaves petiolate (petioles ¹/8-¹/3 lengths of blades); blades obovate to ovate or elliptic or sublyrate, 3-21 cm, margins lobed to denticulate, abaxial faces thinly gray-tomentose, adaxial faces green-glabrate. Heads nodding in bud and fruit, erect in flowering. Peduncles ebracteate or bracts 1-2, 13-34 cm at flowering, 16-46 cm in fruit, not dilated distally. Florets: outer pistillate, corollas evenly cream colored, turning crimson, laminae 0.2-0.8 mm wide; inner florets bisexual, fertile. Cypselae 11.5-13 mm, beaks filiform, lengths 1-1.6 times bodies, faces sparsely to moderately papillate (bodies and beaks). 2n = 24.

Flowering Mar-Jun. Slopes in thin, rocky (limestone) soils, usually in woods with abundant oaks; 200-1500 m; N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, and others).