Plants spreading, 5-25+ cm, branched throughout (stems usually ± strigose). Leaves: faces closely strigose; proximal blades narrowly spatulate to linear, 5-15+ × 0.5-2(-3+) mm; distal similar, smaller, narrower. Heads in loose, corymbiform arrays or borne ± singly. Involucres 3-4 mm. Phyllaries glabrous or glabrate; outer greenish to purplish, lanceolate, shorter, sparsely strigose; inner stramineous to purplish, linear-attenuate (more scarious). Receptacles 0.7-1 mm diam. in fruit. Pistillate florets 20-30; corollas ± equaling or surpassing styles, laminae 0.3-0.8 mm. Disc florets 3-8. Cypselae pale tan, 1-1.5 mm, faces sparsely strigillose or glabrous; pappi of 20-30, tawny to pinkish bristles 2-2.5 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering late spring-early fall. Disturbed sites, usually in heavy clay soils; 100-800 m; Ala., Ark., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., La., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.Mex., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.Dak., Tex., Wis.