Annuals, (1-)3-15(-30) cm; taprooted or fibrous-rooted. Stems commonly with decumbent branches produced from bases, densely or loosely and persistently woolly-tomentose. Leaf blades spatulate to oblanceolate-oblong, 1-3.5 cm × 3-8(-10) mm. Bracts subtending heads oblanceolate to obovate, 4-12 × 1.5-4 mm, shorter than or surpassing glomerules. Heads in capitate glomerules (at stem tips and in distalmost axils). Involucres 2.5-4 mm. Phyllaries brownish, bases woolly, the inner narrowly oblong with white (opaque), blunt apices. 2n = 14. Flowering May-Oct. Arroyos, sandy streambeds, pond edges, potholes, other moist, open sites; 100-2900 m; Alta., B.C., Sask.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Mexico.

Plant: Annual forb 20-40 cm; herbage woolly, unscented; stems generally branched at base, leafy Leaves: leaves alternate, narrow, entire, 4-30 mm, sessile, oblong to spoon-shaped, clasping or short-decurrent INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads disciform, many, small, ± sessile in clusters; clusters small, terminal or axillary; involucre 3-3.5 mm, ± cylindric to ± ovoid; phyllaries smooth and brown with whitish tips above, tomentose below Flowers: Pistillate flowers many, in several series; corollas 1.5-2 mm, very slender, minutely lobed, cream to pale yellow or tip reddish; Disk flowers few; corollas ± cylindric to funnel-shaped, whitish to purplish; anther bases short-tailed; style branches wider at tip, truncate Fruit: Fruit: achenes, < 1 mm, oblong; pappus bristles free Misc: Moist places; < 2700 m.; May-Oct