Plants spreading, reddish, 0.5-3 × 1-3(-5) dm, thinly silky-puberulent. Stems 0.3-0.5 dm. Leaf blades obovate to rounded or somewhat reniform, 0.5-1.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm. Inflorescences spreading, diffuse, 5-25 cm; bracts triangular, 1-2(-2.5) × 1-2(-2.5) mm, scalelike, glabrous but ciliate on margins. Involucral bracts oblanceolate to obovate, 0.5-0.8 × 0.1-0.3 mm, glabrous but ciliate on margins, outermost one deeply 2-lobed. Flowers: perianth white to rose, becoming red in fruit, 2-2.5 mm, smooth; tepals monomorphic, lanceolate, not auriculate, margins entire; filaments 1.2-1.8 mm. Achenes 1.3-1.8 mm. Flowering May-Sep. Sandy, pumice flats and slopes, saltbush communities; 1700-1900 m; Nev. Johanneshowellia crateriorum is known only from the Lunar Crater area of Nye County.