[1][3] This plant is a low shrub or subshrub up to about 20 centimeters high, growing from a woody, branching caudex.

[5] The bark on the woody part is dark gray and fibrous, and the stems are green and glandular.

One population is located between the rim of the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, and the others are within the Navajo Nation.

[6] Associated plants include Artemisia tridentata (big sagebrush), Atriplex canescens (four-wing saltbush), Berberis fremontii (barberry), Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama), Krascheninnikovia lanata (winterfat), Chrysothamnus depressus (dwarf rabbitbrush), C. greenei (Greene rabbit-bush), C. viscidiflorus (sticky-leaf rabbit-brush), Gutierrezia sarothrae (broom snakeweed), Koeleria pyramidata (junegrass), Juniperus sp.

(pine), Poa fendleriana (muttongrass), Purshia stansburiana (Stansbury cliffrose), Quercus gambelii (Gambel oak), and Tetradymia sp.