Plants herbs, narrowly erect, (0.5) 1–6 dm tall, tomentose, whitish to grayish; aerial flowering stems erect, (0.3) 1–3 dm long, tomentose; leaves cauline, the petioles 0.3–1.5 cm long, the blades narrowly oblanceolate to broadly elliptic, (0.7) 1–3 cm long, 0.5–1.5 cm wide, densely white-tomentose and whitish to grayish on both surfaces; inflorescences narrowly cymose, distally uniparous due to suppression of secondary branches, open, (5) 10–50 cm long, 10–25 cm wide, the branches tomentose, the bracts 1.5–3 mm long, 1–2.5 mm wide; peduncles absent; involucres appressed to branches, turbinate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, tomentose, rarely glabrous, the teeth 5, erect, 0.4–1 mm long; flowers (1) 1.5–2 mm long, the perianth white, becoming pink or red, glabrous, the tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl broadly fan-shaped, those of inner whorl oblanceolate, the stamens included, 1–1.5 mm long, the filaments pilose proximally; achenes dark brown, trigonous, 1–1.3 mm long. 2n = 26.

Flowering year-round. Sandy to gravelly washes, flats, and slopes, saltbush, creosote bush, greasewood, blackbrush, and sagebrush communities, oak, pinyon and/or juniper, and montane conifer woodlands; (200) 500–2200 (2500) m.