Plants herbs, erect to slightly spreading, 3–8 (10) dm tall, 0.5–1.5 dm across, tomentose to floccose or rarely glabrous, grayish; stems spreading to erect, without persistent leaf bases, up to 1/6 height of plant, the caudex stems absent, the aerial flowering stems erect to slightly spreading, slender to stout, solid, not fistulose, (1) 1.5–2.5 (3) dm long, tomentose to floccose, rarely glabrous; leaves basal, 1 per node, the petioles (2) 3–10 (15) cm long, tomentose to floccose, the blades elliptic to ovate or oval to nearly rotund, (1.5) 2–6 (10) cm long, 1– 4 (5) cm wide, lanate to thinly tomentose abaxially, floccose or glabrous and green adaxially, the margins plane; inflorescences virgate or racemose with involucres racemosely disposed throughout or at tips, 15–50 cm long, 05–20 cm wide, tomentose, rarely glabrous, the branches dichotomous, upper secondaries suppressed and bearing 5–20 (30) racemosely arranged involucres, the bracts 3, scalelike, triangular, and (1) 2.5–7 mm long, or foliaceous, linear-oblanceolate or oblanceolate to elliptic, and 10–40 mm long, 5–20 (25) mm wide; peduncles absent or erect, stout, 0.3–4 cm long, tomentose to floccose; involucres 1 per node, turbinate to turbinate-campanulate, (2) 3–5 mm long, (2) 2.5–4 mm wide, tomentose to floccose, the teeth 5, erect, (0.1) 0.2–0.5 mm long; flowers (2) 2.5–5 mm long, the perianth white to pinkish, glabrous, the hypanthium 1⁄4 length of perianth, the tepals monomorphic, oblong, the stamens exserted, 2–5 mm long, the filaments pilose proximally; achenes light brown, 3–4 mm long, glabrous. 2n = 36.

Flowering Jun-Oct. Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grass, sagebrush, and mountain mahogany communities, scrub oak, pinyon, juniper, and conifer woodlands; 1400–2900 (3500) m.