Subshrubs (mat-forming), 2-12 cm; caudices woody, branched . Stems (5-20+) prostrate to erect (bark becoming dark brown to gray, flaky to fibrous when older; twigs, mostly ascending, whitish tan to purplish, mostly 1-4 cm), usually hairy, often stipitate-glandular. Leaves cauline; alternate; sessile; blades (often marcescent, crowded, appearing fasciculate, ascending to spreading) usually 1-nerved, linear to narrowly spatulate (bases ± clasping, often whitish), margins entire, scabrous (cilia spreading-ascendant, short; apices acute to obtuse, often minutely mucronate), faces glabrous or scabrous to villous, often stipitate-glandular. Heads radiate, borne singly. Peduncles 1-5 cm, usually hairy, often stipitate-glandular. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric, (5-10 ×) 7-15 mm. Phyllaries 10-18 in 2(-3) series, 1-nerved (rarely weakly 3- nerved; sometimes weakly keeled), outer linear or narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, inner narrowly oblanceolate, subequal, chartaceous proximally, herbaceous and pliable distally, margins scarious, abaxial faces sometimes sparsely hairy, stipitate-glandular. Receptacles convex, pitted, epaleate. Ray florets 5-11, pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow (laminae elliptic to oblong, 4.5-12 × 1.3-5.5 mm). Disc florets 9-27, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, tubes shorter than narrowly or broadly vase-shaped throats, lobes 5, erect to ascending, triangular to narrowly lanceolate; style-branch appendages triangular to narrowly lanceolate. Cypselae ( tan to reddish brown) turbinate, slightly compressed, 8-10 ribbed, hairy; pappi persistent, of 30-50 whitish, barbellate, apically attenuate bristles in 1 series. x = 9.

Phylogenetic studies (R. P. Roberts 2002; Roberts and L. E. Urbatsch 2003, 2004; Roberts et al. 2005) have indicated that the two species of Nestotus deserve taxonomic recognition as a distinct genus.