Plants perennial. Stems decumbent to ascending, much branched, elongate, glabrous or glandular-pubescent. Leaves: petiole 1-6 cm; blade ovate to lance-elliptic, 1-6 × 0.5-4 cm, margins entire to sinuate and ± undulate, surfaces glabrous or glandular-pubescent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts lanceolate to obovate, 5-12 × 1-5 mm, papery, glabrate to glandular-pubescent; flowers 25-60. Perianth: tube pale rose proximally to greenish distally, 15-25 mm, limb white, 7-12 mm diam. Fruits winged, broadly obdeltate or cordate in profile, 6-10 × 4-10 mm, thin, usually coriaceous, rarely indurate, base attenuate, apex prominently beaked; wings (2-)5 (when 2, folded to form single deep groove), without dilations, broad, thin, without cavities.

Flowering spring-fall. Sandy soils, cold desert scrub, grasslands; 100-2000 m; Idaho, Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.