Densely branching clusters of 1–2 foot tall stems are gray-green with loose woolly hairs, and topped with woolly, tight, flat-topped flower clusters. The small, rounded flower heads have shiny-white bracts and yellow disk florets (no petal-like rays). Note the narrow leaves are equally hairy on both top and bottom surfaces. Also called cotton batting cudweed.

FLOWER: June–October. Dense, flat-topped, woolly-hairy clusters on branch ends have small flower heads with rows of shiny-white (aging yellowish), overlapping bracts; disk flowers are evenly yellow and tightly packed.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades linear to narrowly lance-shaped, 3/4–3 inches long (2–8 cm) by 1/8–5/8 inch wide (3–15 mm); base slightly clasping, usually with no wing-like extensions growing down the stem; both surfaces covered with soft, woolly hairs.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils; drainages, moist alluvial shorelines, slopes, disturbed areas; grama grasslands, shrub lands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa forests.

ELEVATION: 3,400–8,300 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, NM, NV, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA; a scattered waif in other western and mid-Atlantic states.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Macoun's cudweed, P. macounii, widespread in NM, has gland-tipped hairs on the stem, and leaves with green upper and woolly-gray lower surfaces, and tiny wings that run from the leaf base slightly down the stem. Wright’s cudweed, P. canescens, in the western half of NM, has sessile leaves (without stalks or wings on stem), and matted, woolly hairs that densely cover both the leaf surfaces and stems.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM in low- to mid-elevation habitats:  Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Union, Valencia.