[4] Dieteria canescens is native to western and central North America, from the Pacific Coast to the Western part of the Great Plains, from British Columbia south to California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, east to Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, and Oklahoma, with a few isolated populations in Iowa and Minnesota.

[5] Dieteria canescens is a woolly-haired, glandular annual or perennial herb with one or more branching stems sometimes exceeding 100 cm (39 in) in height.

[6] The linear to oblong leaves may reach 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) long near the base of the stems, their edges usually serrated or toothed.

[3][6] The inflorescence bears one or more flower heads lined with several layers of pointed, curling or curving phyllaries.

The fruit is an achene around 3 millimeters in length tipped with a pappus of long hairs.