Shrubs, 10-120 cm; with woody, branched caudices, bark whitish tan, becoming gray, flaky and fibrous with age. Stems ascending, green, soon becoming tan, glabrous or puberulent, sometimes resin-dotted, often resinous. Leaves ascending, spreading, or deflexed; sessile; blades with evident midnerves plus sometimes 1-2 pairs of smaller, collateral nerves, linear to lanceolate, 10-75 × 0.5-10 mm, flat or sulcate, often twisted, margins often undulate, sometimes ciliate, apices acute to apiculate, faces glabrous or puberulent. Heads in dense, rounded cymiform arrays (to 7 cm wide), not overtopped by distal leaves. Involucres cylindric to obconic or campanulate, 4-7 × 1.5-2.5 mm. Phyllaries 12-24 in 3-5 series, in spirals or weak vertical ranks, mostly tan, green to brown subapical patch often present, midnerves usually evident (at least distally), linear-oblong, lanceolate to elliptic or obovate to spatulate, 1-5 × 0.5-1.2 mm, unequal, chartaceous, margins scarious, eciliate or ciliolate to erose-ciliolate, flat or convex, sometimes weakly keeled, apices acute to obtuse or rounded, sometimes apiculate, flat, faces glabrous or puberulent. Disc florets (3-)4-5(-14); corollas 3.5-6.5 mm, lobes 0.7-1.7 mm; style branches 2.2-3.2 mm (exserted beyond spreading corolla lobes), appendages 0.8-1.5 mm (length shorter than stigmatic portion). Cypselae tan to reddish brown, turbinate, 2.5-4.2 mm, ± 5-angled, moderately to densely hairy; pappi tan, 3.5-6 mm.

Plant: Shrub 1-15 dm; stems erect, brittle, white (greener upward) Leaves: 1-7.5 cm, 1-10 mm wide, alternate, sessile, entire, thread-like to oblong, flat or twisted, (gray-)green, ± sticky INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads discoid, in dense, flat-topped or rounded cymes; involucre 5-10 mm, generally cylindric; phyllaries generally ± lanceolate, in ± 5 vertical ranks, keeled, yellow-green, ± sticky, tips obtuse to acute Flowers: 3-13; corolla 3.5-7.5 mm, yellow, lobes 0.5-3 mm; style exserted, style branches long, slender, appendage generally >> stigma Fruit: 3-5 mm, hairy, narrowly cylindric, ± 5-ridged, generally light brown; pappus ± = corolla Misc: Sagebrush, pinyon/juniper woodland; 900-4000 m.