Plants shrubs, spreading, not scapose, 3.5–8 (10) dm tall, 5–10 (13) dm across, grayish-tomentose, grayish; stems spreading, usually without persistent leaf bases, sheathing up to 1⁄2 or more height of plant, the caudex stems absent, the aerial flowering stems erect to spreading, slender, solid, not fistulose, 0.5–1.2 dm long, tomentose; leaves cauline, 1 per node, the petioles 0.3–0.6 cm long, tomentose, the blades lanceolate to elliptic, 3–5 cm long, 0.5–2 cm wide, densely silvery-tomentose on both surfaces or rarely less so to subglabrous and greenish abaxially, the margins plane or slightly revolute, sometimes crenulate; inflorescences cymose, often compact, (3) 6–14 dm tall, 3–10 dm wide, the branches dichotomous, tomentose to subglabrous, the bracts 3, scalelike, linear, and 1.5–3 mm long, or leaflike, 10–15 mm long, and similar to leaf blades; peduncles absent; involucres 1 per node, turbinate, 2.5–3 mm long, 1.5–2 mm wide, the teeth 5, erect, 0.4–1 mm long; flowers (2) 2.5–3.5 mm long, the perianth white to cream, glabrous, the hypanthium 1⁄4 length of perianth, essentially monomorphic, spatulate, the stamens exserted, 1.5–4.5 mm long, the filaments glabrous or slightly pilose proximally; achenes brown, 2–2.5 mm long, glabrous. 2n = 40.