Plants 50-70 cm. Stems yellowish green, moderately leafy to nearly leafless, compact tomentose. Leaves yellowish green; blades 1-nerved, filiform, 10-30 × 0.7-1 mm, faces tomentulose . Involucres 7-8.5 mm . Phyllaries 16-26 (in vertical ranks), apices recurved, acuminate, abaxial faces tomentose to glabrate, glutinous. Corollas 6-7.5 mm, tubes glabrous, lobes 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous; style appendages shorter than stigmatic portions. Cypselae hairy; pappi 4.5-6.7 mm.

Flowering late summer-fall. Gravelly arroyos; 700-1700 m; Calif.

Variety ceruminosa grows in the Mojave Desert.