Plants erect to infrequently spreading, (0.3) 0.5–2.5 (3) dm long, 0.5–3 (5) dm wide, thinly pubescent; leaves basal or nearly so, the petiole 1–2 (3) cm long, the leaf-blade oblong or oblong-ovate to ovate, 0.3–1 (1.5) cm long, 0.3–0.8 (1) cm wide, thinly pubescent adaxially, densely tomentose abaxially; inflorescences mostly flat- topped and openly branched, not disarticulating at the nodes, usually reddish; bracts persistent, 2, opposite, usually foliaceous at proximal nodes and similar to proximal leaf blades only more reduced, short-petiolate, oblong-ovate to ovate, 0.3–0.8 cm long, 0.2–0.6 cm wide, becoming sessile, reduced and scalelike at distal nodes, linear, acicular, often acerose, 0.1–0.4 cm long 0.05–0.1 cm wide, the awns straight, 0.5–1 mm long; involucres in open clusters with 1 at node of dichotomies, cylindric, not ventricose, 3-angled and 6-ribbed, 3– 4.5 mm long, not corrugate, thinly pubescent, reddish, without scarious or membranous margins, the teeth spreading, unequal, 0.7–1.5 mm long, 3 longer ones more erect than 3 shorter and less-prominent ones, the awns uncinate, 0.5–1 mm long; flowers long-exserted, the perianth rose to red, infrequently with white tepals, cylindric, 4.5–6 mm long, pubescent, the hypanthium 2/3 length of perianth, the tepals monomorphic to slightly dimorphic, narrowly oblanceolate, rounded apically, those of outer whorl occasionally slightly broader and longer than those of inner whorl, the stamens 9, mostly included, the filaments distinct, adnate at base of hypanthium, 4–6 mm long, glabrous, the anthers pink to red, oblong, 0.5–0.6 mm long; achenes brown, lenticular, 4–4.5 mm long, the embryo straight.

Flowering Apr–Jul. Sandy to gravelly places in mixed grassland, saltbush and chaparral communities, pine-oak woodlands; (60) 300–1600 m; widely scattered in the Coast Ranges from western Merced, eastern Monterey, and San Benito cos. south through San Luis Obispo Co. to the Transverse Ranges of northern Santa Barbara and Ventura cos., thence east along the northern foothills of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains of Los Angeles Co. to extreme southwestern San Bernardino Co., and then northj through the Tehachapi Mountains of central and eastern Kern Co. onto the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare cos., California.