Plants 3-10 dm. Flowering stems fistulose. Inflorescences usually nar-rowly erect and strict. Peduncles deflexed, (0.3-)0.5-1.5 cm.  Involucres narrowly turbinate, (2-)2.5-3 mm. Flowers 2-2.5 mm; tepals cordate. 2n = 40.

Flowering Jul-Oct. Sandy to gravelly washes, flats, and slopes, saltbush, creosote bush, blackbrush, and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 700-2900 m; Calif., Nev.

Variety baratum occurs from the Transverse Ranges of southwestern California (Kern, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties) northward onto the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada (Kern, Tulare, and Inyo counties), onto the desert ranges of northern San Bernardino County north to Mono County, and east into southern Nevada (Esmeralda, Lincoln, and Nye counties).