Plants laxly colonial. Stems sometimes reddish at base. Leaves: blades 10-100 mm, margins sometimes ciliate or (distal) stipitate-glandular, apices mucronulate; basal sometimes marcescent, petiole bases widened, clasping, apices obtuse or acute; cauline reduced distally, subclasping, apices acute. Heads (1-)3-10(-30+), each terminating long, ascending branch. Peduncle bracts 2-9, glandular. Phyllaries ± green, margins erose-hyaline, inner more widely so, apices mucronulate. Ray floret laminae 5-8 mm. Cypselae golden brown, ribs stramineous. 2n = 18. Flowering spring-fall. Damp alkaline places, alluvial soils, with halophytic vegetation, inland salt marshes, along streams in ravines, ditches, in desert and dry prairie areas; 200-2400 m; Alta., Man., N.W.T., Sask.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Nev., N.Mex., N.Dak., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Wyo.; Mexico.

Plant: Perennial forb to 1m; stems erect, branching above Leaves: leaves alternate, elongate linear and grass-like