Dioecious or gynoecious (staminate plants uncommon or in equal frequency as pistillates, respectively). Plants 2-8(-15) cm. Stolons 1-6 cm. Basal leaves 1-nerved, narrowly spatulate to spatulate or oblanceolate, 8-35 × 2-15 mm, tips mucronate, faces gray-tomentose. Cauline leaves linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 8-20 mm, not flagged (apices acute). Heads 2-7 in corymbiform arrays. Involucres: staminate 5.5-7.5 mm; pistillate 8-10(-15) mm (gynoecious), 7-7.2 mm (dioecious). Phyllaries distally white, pink, green, red, or brown. Corollas: staminate 3.5-4.5 mm; pistillate 5-8 mm. Cypselae 1-1.8 mm, glabrous or minutely papillate; pappi: staminate 4-5.5 mm; pistillate 6.5-9 mm. 2n = 56, 84, 112, 140. Flowering late spring-summer. Prairies, pastures, roadsides, mountain parks, open deciduous woods, and drier coniferous forests, usually ponderosa or lodgepole pine; 100-3400 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Sask.; Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Iowa, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., N.Dak., Okla. (expected in panhandle), Oreg., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wis. (expected), Wyo.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Nuevo León).