Annuals or perennials, 20-200 cm; fibrous-rooted. Stems stipitate- to sessile-glan-dular (commonly with eglandular but viscid hairs as well), not arachnose. Leaves petiolate or sessile; blades (succulent, drying thin) lance-ovate to ovate or ovate-elliptic, mostly 4-15 × 1-7 cm, margins shallowly serrate, faces glabrate to moderately or densely pubescent (hairs crinkly). Heads in corymbiform arrays (flat-topped to rounded, often layered, sometimes incorporating relatively long, leafy, lateral branches, clusters of heads terminal on branches, some lateral branches nearly equaling or surpassing central portions). Involucres cylindro-campanulate, 5-6 × 4-8(-10) mm. Phyllaries usually cream, sometimes purplish, minutely sessile-glandular (outer usually also puberulent), sometimes glabrate. Corollas pink to rosy or purple. Pappi persistent, bristles distinct. 2. = 20.

Plant: Rhizomatous perennial forb to 1 m; herbage aromatic and glandular Leaves: leaves alternate, ovate, downy, 4-12 cm, not crowded, toothed INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads disciform, many, in flat-topped clusters at ends of stems; involucre 4.5-5.5 mm, ± hemispheric; phyllaries in 3-5 unequal series, outer leathery above, inner narrower, ± membranous; receptacle naked Flowers: Pistillate flowers: many; corollas 3.5-4 mm, purple, very slender, 4-5-lobed; Disk flowers: few; corollas 4-5 mm, purple, 5-lobed; anther bases short-tailed, tips ± ovate; style branches 0 to short, obtuse Fruit: ± 1 mm, minutely rough-hairy, ± cylindric, grooved; pappus bristles slender to tip Misc: Moist, often saline valley bottoms; 0-300 m.; Jul-Nov References: McDougall; Seed plants of Northern Arizona. Hickman, ed.; The Jepson Manual. ASU specimans