Annuals, 20-100 cm, herbaceous or suffrutescent. Leaf blades oblanceolate to oblong or oblong-lanceolate, mid-cauline (1-)4-15(-25) mm wide. Heads on short, sometimes bracteate peduncles, not surpassed by distal leaves. Involucres (4.5-)6-9 × 9-15(-20) mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, loose, strongly unequal, apices broadly spreading to squarrose, ca. 0.9-1 mm wide, herbaceous. Ray florets (13-)20-36; corollas 6-11(-14) mm. Disc florets: corolla tubes ± equaling limbs. 2n = 12. Flowering (Jul-)Aug-Oct. Sand or sandy loam, prairies, stream sides and bottoms, alkaline flats, salt marsh edges, roadsides; 1000-1700 m; Colo., Kans., Nebr., N.Mex., Okla., Tex., Wyo.