Plants perennial, cushion-forming, hirtellous; caudex much-branched, woody. Stems erect to ascending, much-branched, 4-10 cm, hirtellous. Leaves: stipules lanceolate, 5-8 mm, apex acu-minate, often deeply cleft; blade lanceolate, 5-9 × 0.75-1.1 mm, leathery, apex pungently mucro-nate, minutely hirtellous to puberulent. Cymes terminal and subterminal, 3-7(-10)-flowered, densely congested, forming large and conspicuous glomerules 5-15 mm wide. Flowers 5-merous, ± short-campanulate, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx slightly constricted then widening distally, 3.3-4.5 mm, puberulent with mostly ascending hairs; sepals red-brown, midrib and lateral pair of veins absent to evident, oblong, 1.7-2 mm, leathery to rigid, margins white, 0.2-0.3 mm wide, papery to scarious, apex terminated by awn, hood ± obscure, broadly rounded, awn moderately divergent, white, ± lanceoloid, 1.4-2.1 mm, scabrous, distinct spine absent; staminodes ± triangular, 0.2-0.4 mm; styles 2, 0.5-0.7 mm. Utricles subglobose to ± 4-angular, 1.2-1.3 mm, papillate distally. Flowering spring-fall. Dry, rocky hills, gravelly slopes and summits; of conservation concern; 1200-1600 m.; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila).