Plants herbs, spreading to erect, (0.5) 1–3 dm tall, mostly floccose to tomentose, grayish to tawny; aerial flowering stems mostly erect, 0.3–0.8 dm long, floccose to tomentose; leaves basal, the petioles 1–4 cm long, floccose, the blades suborbiculate to cordate, 0.5–1.5 (1.8) cm long, 0.5–2 cm wide, densely white- to grayish- tomentose abaxially, less so to glabrate and often greenish adaxially; inflorescences cymose, distally uniparous due to suppression of secondary branches, open, 5–2.5 cm long, 10–30 cm wide, the branches not inwardly curved distally, floccose to tomentose, the bracts 0.5–3 mm long, 1–3 mm wide; peduncles absent; involucres appressed to branches, campanulate, 1.5–2 mm long and wide, floccose to tomentose, the teeth 5, erect, 0.2– 0.3 mm long; flowers 1.5–2 mm long, the perianth white to pink or pale yellowish, becoming pink to red, glabrous, the tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl narrowly fan-shaped, those of inner whorl oblanceolate, the stamens included, 1–1.5 mm long, the filaments pilose proximally; achenes brown, trigonous, 1.5–1.8 mm long. 2n = 40.

Flowering Mar-Oct. Sandy to gravelly washes, flats, and slopes, saltbush, greasewood, creosote bush, blackbrush, and sagebrush communities, pinyon and/or juniper woodlands; (300) 600–2300 (2700) m.