It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat, including many desert areas, woodlands, and plains.

It is a perennial herb or bushy subshrub producing one or more sturdy, stiff stems with many spreading branches, taking a rounded but vertical form.

Flower heads occur at intervals along the mostly naked stems, especially near the tips.

The fruit is an achene tipped with a spreading cluster of plumelike pappus bristles.

The specific epithet pauciflora, refers to the Latin term for 'few flowered'.