With dense branching and 1–3 feet tall and wide, this woody, low-growing desert shrub is widespread and common in NM. It has deeply lobed, silvery-green leaves matted with short, soft, woolly hairs. Note the flower heads have 5 tiny, creamy-white, petal-like rays with notched tips around a white disk. The succulent leaf pulp, which contains natural rubber compounds, can be an irritant to sensitive skin.

FLOWER: June–October. Flat-topped clusters 2–3 inches wide on branch tips have small compact flower heads about 1/4 inch wide (6 mm); ray flowers oval, white, 1/16–1/8 inch long (1–2 mm), tips notched; disk flowers white with yellow stamens.

LEAVES: Alternate, aromatic. Blade 5/8–1 inch long (15–25 mm) deeply pinnately cut with 5–7 irregular, round-tipped lobes; surfaces covered with short, matted, woolly hair.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils in upper elevation deserts on ridges, plains, slopes, rocky outcrops, drainages; desert grasslands and scrub, semi-desert shrubby uplands, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,200–7,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, NV, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Gray's feverfew, P. confertum, in much the same habitat and range, is 4–12 inches tall without woody stems, has green (not silvery-woolly) leaves, and small ray flowers without notches.

NM COUNTIES: Southern half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Quay, San Miguel, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Valencia.