Plants rounded, slender, 0.4-1.4(-2) dm. Stems with several lateral, dichotomously branched, flowering branches; herbage often reddish, farinose when young, becoming glabrate. Leaves 2.5-8.5 × 0.2-2(-2.5) mm; proximal usually early deciduous. Perianth segments much-reduced, white-farinose. Utricles 0.6-0.8 mm; pericarp brownish.

Flowering spring-summer. Alkaline flats; 1000-1500(-2100) m; Calif., Colo., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Micromonolepis pusilla is common in the western Great Basin of the United States.