Plants 70-120 cm. Stems grayish green, moderately leafy, moderately compactly tomentose . Leaves grayish green; blades 1-nerved, linear, 40-75 × 0.8-1.1 mm, faces tomentose. Involucres 16-19 mm. Phyllaries (19-)22-27 (in strongly vertical ranks), apices ± recurved, cuspidate-aristate, abaxial faces glabrous or glabrescent. Corollas 12-14.2 mm, tubes glabrous, lobes 1.2-2 mm, glabrous; style appendages longer than stigmatic portions. Cypselae hairy; pappi 9.6-12.7 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering late summer-fall. Sandhills and sandstone cliffs; 1500-2000 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Utah.