Bushy clumps of hairy, leafy stems reach 4–24 inches tall topped with spreading arrays of tiny, white flower heads. Note the minute rays are notched and widely spaced, and the hairy leaves have rounded lobes. The plants are herbaceous, not woody, and flower the second year, then die.

FLOWER: April–October. Spreading, open clusters (panicles) have small white flower heads with 5 (or 0) minute, widely spaced, notched rays around a woolly, white disk.

LEAVES: Basal rosette for first year, sometimes flowering. Stem leaves alternate. Blades 1–3 inches long (3–8 cm), oval to elliptic in outline, deeply cut along the midrib with round-tipped lobes; surfaces hairy, margins lined with tiny, ciliate hairs.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, rocky soils; mesas, canyons, hillsides, prairies, dunes, pastures, roadsides, disturbed areas; prairie grasslands, desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,580–7,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Mariola, P. incanum, common in much the same range, is a woody perennial 1–3 feet tall with slightly larger ray flowers, and smaller, silvery-gray, hairy leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Southern and eastern NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry soils: Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Quay, San Miguel, Sierra, Socorro.