Herbs, monocarpic, 5-20(-25) dm, strigose or glabrous; taproot often chambered. Stems: caudex absent; aerial flowering stems usually 1, not fistulose, 2-13 dm, strigose or glabrous. Leaves basal and sometimes cauline; basal petiolate, petiole 2-6 cm, stigose to woolly or glabrous, blade linear-lanceolate or lanceolate to oblanceolate to spatulate, (3-)5-20 × 0.3-2 cm, strigose, becoming glabrous and green on both surfaces except for margins and midvein; cauline sessile, blade linear-oblanceolate to lanceolate, 1-9 × 0.3-0.8(-1) cm, similar to basal blade. Inflorescences 2-10 dm; branches strigose or glabrous; bracts semileaflike proximally, linear to linear-lanceolate, 2-9 × 1-3 mm, scalelike distally, triangular, 0.8-5 × 0.5-2 mm. Peduncles erect, straight or curving upward, 0.5-3.5 cm, strigose or glabrous. Involucres turbinate to campanulate, 2-4(-4.5) × 2-4(-4.5) mm, strigose or glabrous; teeth 1-1.8 mm. Flowers 1.5-2.5 mm in anthesis, 3-6 mm in fruit; perianth yellow to yellowish green, rarely maroon in anthesis, often reddish or maroon in fruit, glabrous; tepals lanceolate; stamens 1.5-3 mm; filaments glabrous. Achenes yellowish green to reddish brown, 5-9 mm, glabrous, 3-winged entire length, beakless.
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A herb. It often lasts for 2 years. It has a ring of leaves at the base. They are 5-10 cm long and red green. The flowers stems are 50-125 cm tall. The flowers are small and yellow. The seeds have wings.
Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, and sagebrush communities, oak, pinyon and/or juniper, and montane conifer woodlands at elevations of 300-3100 metres.