Plant is a small, semi-shrubby perennial, from whose oblique, knotted rootstalks arise numerous leafy shoots and flowering stems. The glabrous and woody stems bear on their many branches numerous small (one inch long) bi- to multi-pinnatifid leaves, while the leaves of the flowering stems are very minute, the upper ones simple. The flower heads are small, numerous, one-tenth of an inch long, with from twelve to eighteen involucral scales, and from three to five flowers.