Plants (0.5) 1–5 (20) dm tall; flowering stems not fistulose; inflorescences flat-topped, spreading, hemispheric, rarely narrowly erect and strict with whiplike branches; peduncles absent or deflexed, rarely some ± erect distally, (0.1) 0.2–0.5 cm long; involucres turbinate, 1.5–2.5 mm long; flowers 1–2 mm long, the outer tepals cordate to ovate. 2n = 40.

Flowering year-round. Sandy to gravelly washes, flats, and slopes, saltbush, creosote bush, greasewood, blackbrush, sagebrush, and mesquite communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; -50–1900 (2000) m.