Herbs, matted, dioecious, (0.1-)0.5-5 × 2-8 dm, floccose or glabrous. Stems: caudex spread-ing; aerial flowering stems erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, arising at nodes of caudex branches and at distal nodes of short, non-flowering aerial branches, (0.1-)0.5-4 dm, floccose or glabrous. Leaves in loose to compact basal rosettes; petiole 0.3-2 cm, often tomentose; blade ovate to oval, 0.3-3 × 0.3-1 cm, densely tannish-to brownish-lanate abaxially, glabrate and green to olive green adaxially, margins entire, plane. Inflorescences capitate, 0.5-2 cm wide, mature pistillate plants open and elongate-umbellate, 1-5 × 1-7 cm; branches usually glabrous; bracts 5-10, leaflike, 0.2-0.8 cm, often absent immediately below involucre. Involucres 1 per node but occasionally appearing congested, turbinate and 2-3 × 1.5-2 mm or campanulate and 4-5 × 5-7 mm, sparsely tomentose or glabrous; teeth 5-6, erect, 0.4-0.7 mm. Flowers stipelike base 0.5-1 mm; perianth yellow, glabrous; staminate flowers 1.5-3 mm, tepals ovate; pistillate flowers 4-7 mm, tepals oblanceolate, often becoming reddish in fruit; stamens exserted, 2-3 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes light brown to brown, 3.5-5 mm, glabrous except for sparsely pubescent beak. 2n = 32.
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