Plants herbs, spreading, annual, 0.5–4 dm tall, glandular, greenish; stems with caudex absent, the aerial flowering stems erect, solid, not fistulose, 0.2–0.7 dm long, glandular; leaves basal, the petioles 1–4 cm long, tomentose, the blades orbiculate to cordate, 1–3 (5) cm long, (1.5) 2–5 (5.5) cm wide, densely white-tomentose abaxially, less so to subglabrous and green adaxially, the margins usually smooth; inflorescences cymose, open to rather diffuse, often flat-topped, 3–40 cm long, 3–100 cm wide, the branches glandular, the bracts scalelike, 1–3 mm long, 0.5–1.5 mm wide; peduncles absent or deflexed, straight, stoutish, 0.1–1.5 cm long, glandular; involucres turbinate to campanulate, 1–2.5 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, glandular, the teeth 5, erect, 0.3–1 mm long; flowers 1–2.5 mm long, the perianth white with greenish or reddish midribs, becoming reddish, glabrous, the tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl ovate to oblong and often auriculate proximally, those of inner whorl usually lanceolate, the stamens included to exserted, 1.5–2.5 mm long, the filaments glabrous or pilose proximally; achenes brown to black, lenticular to trigonous, 1.5–2 mm long, glabrous. 2n = 40.

Flowering year-round. Sandy to gravelly washes, flats, and slopes, saltbush, creosote bush, greasewood, mesquite, blackbrush, and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 100–2300 m.