Matted sagewort

Perennials or subshrubs, 5–15 cm (cespitose), aromatic. S tems 5–20), gray-green, glabrescent. L eaves persistent. gray-green, mostly basal; proximal blades reduced, mostly less than 1 cm, lobed or entire; distal blades 1–2 × 0.5–0.8 cm, 1–2-ternately lobed, lobes 1–2 mm wide, apices acute, faces densely tomentose. Heads (mostly 6–15, 1 or 3–4 on lateral branches; mostly erect, sessile or pedunculate) in racemiform-paniculiform arrays, 5–8 × 0.5–0.8 cm. Involucres globose, 3–4 × 3–4 mm. P hyllaries (margins scarious, obscured) white-tomentose. Florets: pistillate 4–7; functionally staminate 5–9; corollas yellow, usually red-tinged, 2–3 mm, glabrous. Cypselae (brown) ellipsoid (angled), 0.8–1 mm, (sometimes with white ribs) glabrous.

Flowering early spring–mid summer. High plains, grasslands; 1600–1800 m; Colo., Idaho, Mont., Wyo.