Plants erect, (0.8-)1.5-5 × 2-5 dm. Aerial flowering stems erect, 0.5-1 dm, densely tomentose to lanate. Leaves: blade oblance-olate to narrowly spatulate, 1.5-5(-6) × (0.2-)0.3-0.8(-1.2) cm, margins plane. Inflorescences cymose, usually divide 3 or more times, 3-6 cm; branches tomentose. Involucres 1 per node, turbinate-campanulate, 2.5-3 × 2-2.5 mm, tomentose. Flowers (1-)1.5-2.5 mm; perianth yellow or, rarely, ochroleucous, glabrous.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities; (1700-)1800-2400(-2600) m; Wyo.

Variety micranthum is restricted to the Red Desert region of southwestern Wyoming in Carbon, Fremont, Lincoln, Natrona, Sublette, Sweetwater, and Uinta counties.