Dioecious. Plants (8–)30–65 cm (caudices branching or rhizomes stout). Stolons none. Basal leaves 3–5-nerved, spatulate to oblanceolate or lanceolate, 50–200 × 4–25 mm, tips acute, mucronate, faces gray-pubescent or silvery sericeous. Cauline leaves linear, 8–140 mm, distal flagged or not. Heads 3–30 in corymbiform to paniculiform arrays. Involucres: staminate 5–8 mm; pistillate 7–12 mm. Phyllaries distally black, dark brown, light brown, castaneous, or olivaceous. Corollas: staminate 3–5 mm; pistillate 3–6 mm. Cypselae 1–1.5 mm, glabrous; pappi: staminate 4–6 mm; pistillate (5–)8–10 mm. 2n = 28, 56.