Plants perennial or annual, not cespitose, 1.5-6 dm; roots primary, woody or fibrous. Stems erect or ascending, sparsely pilose, glabrate. Leaves sessile or petiolate; petiole to 0.9 cm; blade green, elliptic, oblong, ob-lanceolate, or linear, 3-10 × 0.5-1.2 cm, sparsely pilose. Inflorescences: heads white, globose, 0.8-1.3 mm diam., subtended by 2 leaves; bractlets white, not crested. Flowers: tube densely lanose proximally; perianth lobes white, oblong, 3.5-4 mm, hyaline, apex rounded to emarginate. Utricles ovoid, 2.2 mm, apex acute. Seeds 1-1.5 mm. Flowering late summer-winter. Sandy slopes, open woodlands, scrub, dry streambeds; 900-1800 m; Ariz., N.Mex.; Mexico.

Plant: Perennial forb 15-60 cm; stems sparingly branched, sparingly leafy Leaves: leaves opposite, narrow, elliptic, lanceolate, or oblanceolate Flowers: flowers in globose heads conspicuously subtended by cream to pale orange, scarious bracts; spikes usually clustered, subtended by two or more leaves.