Plants erect to spreading, 0.4–4 dm tall, 0.3–4.5 dm across; leaves basal, the leaf blades linear to linear- oblanceolate, 1–4.5 cm long, 0.1–0.7 cm wide, densely hirsute and sparsely glandular; aerial flowering stems sparsely to densely glandular, grayish; inflorescences cymose, open to diffuse, mostly 5–40 cm long, essentially glabrous, grayish; bracts 1–18 mm long, 0.5–4 mm wide, linear to subulate or triangular, sometimes foliaceous, (2) 3 (4) at first node, otherwise 2 or 3 and free or basally connate, hirsute and glandular, with awns 0.2–0.5 mm long, these often lacking at upper nodes; peduncles erect or deflexed, slender, 0.5–1.5 cm long, occasionally lacking at uppermost nodes, glabrous; involucres narrowly turbinate, 1– 2 mm long, typically glabrous abaxially, the teeth (3) 4 mm long, the awns 0.5–3 mm long, grayish; flowers 2– 6, the perianth white to pink, 1–2 mm long, glabrous to strigose and sparsely glandular abaxially, the tepals essentially entire, dimorphic with outer 3 elliptic to oval or ovate and pubescent abaxially, those of inner 3 elliptic oblong to narrowly ovate and glabrous or sometimes strigose abaxially at base, the filaments 0.5–1.5 mm long, glabrous, the anthers oval, cream to red; achenes globose-lenticular, yellow-brown to maroon, 2–2.5 mm long, glabrous; 2n = 40.

Flowering Jun–Oct (Nov). Widespread and common to abundant or even weedy on sandy to rocky flats, washes and slopes in mixed grassland, saltbush and sagebrush communities, and in pinyon and/or juniper or infrequently montane conifer woodlands, 350–3000 m; southeastern Washington (Benton, Franklin, Grant and Yakima cos.), southern Idaho (Bingham, Butte, Elmore and Fremont cos.) and western Wyoming (Fremont, Hot Springs and Sweetwater cos.) south through eastern Oregon (Harney, Lake and Malheur cos.) to east- central California (Inyo, Lassen, Mono and Plumas cos.) and Nevada (Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey and Washoe cos.), disjunct in southern South America.

Our material belongs to subsp. dendroidea, the subsp. chilensis (Rémy) Ertter (based on Brisegnoa chilensis Rémy) being confined to the foothills and low mountains of Chile and Argentina.

Flowers 2– 6, the perianth white to pink, 1–2 mm long; involucres narrowly turbinate, 1– 2 mm long, typically glabrous abaxially, the teeth (3) 4 mm long, the awns 0.5–3 mm long, grayish.

Flowers 2– 6, the perianth white to pink, 1–2 mm long; involucres narrowly turbinate, 1– 2 mm long, typically glabrous abaxially, the teeth (3) 4 mm long, the awns 0.5–3 mm long, grayish.