Plants annual, not cespitose, 2-7 dm; roots fibrous. Stems usually erect, pilose or strigose. Leaves sessile or petiolate; petiole to 0.7 cm; blade green, obovate or oblong, 1.5-6 × 0.4-2.5 cm, apex obtuse or acute, pilose. Inflores-cences: heads yellowish white or rarely reddish, subglobose, 12-16 mm diam.; bractlets with laciniate crests. Flowers: tube lanate; perianth lobes white, linear, 4.1 mm, hyaline, apex attenuate. Utricles ovoid, 1.5 mm, apex truncate. Seeds 1.5 mm. Flowering late summer-fall. Moist ground, bottomlands, canyons, rocky open slopes; 500-2000 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico.

Plant: Annual forb 15-25 cm; stems unbranched, sparingly leafy Leaves: leaves opposite, elliptic-ovate Flowers: flowers in globose heads conspicuously subtended by white, scarious bracts; spikes usually solitary, commonly subtended by two or more leaves.