Subshrubs, 20-50 cm. Stems sparsely scabrous or glandular-scabrous to glabrate. Leaves: basal absent at flowering; cauline blades 1-nerved, linear, 0.5-2.5 mm wide, slightly reduced distally. Heads borne singly or in pairs on bracteate peduncles, or some almost sessile, in loose arrays. Involucres cylindro-turbinate to turbinate-campanulate, 3-5 mm diam. Phyllary apices (green, broadly rounded), thickened, (prominently gland-dotted). Ray florets (4-)5-7(-8); corollas yellow, 2-5 mm. Disc florets 5-15. Cypselae 1-2 mm, faces without oil cavities, loosely strigose; pappi of 1-2 series of oblong-lanceolate scales 1-2 mm. 2n = 32. Flowering Jul-Sep. Dry, open, rocky sites, mixed desert shrub communities; 1400-2200 m; Utah. Gutierrezia pomariensis is similar to G. sarothrae and sympatric with it; the two are ecologically distinct, with G. pomariensis occupying drier habitats. 'Intermediates in a populational sense are few and apparently confined to the ecotone in places where the two taxa grow nearby' (A. Cronquist 1994).