It can most easily be observed in Joshua Tree National Park and in the woodlands along the western margins of the Colorado Desert in San Diego County, California.

It is densely branched, its tangled twigs gray, brown, or yellowish, fuzzy when new and becoming scaly with age.

They are bicolored: dull gray or yellow-green and faintly hairy on the upper surfaces, and white and quite woolly on the undersides.

The wool on the undersides of the leaves is made up of star-shaped leaf hairs that are fused into microscopic plates.

[6] The leaf blades are oval with smooth or toothed edges, and measure 2.5 to 3.5 centimetres (1 to 1+1⁄2 inches) in length.