A plant of western North Dakota and the counties along the east side of the Missouri River, winter fat also occurs from eastern Washington south to Kansas, New Mexico, and southern California at elevations up to 8,000 ft.
Winter fat is a small perennial shrub with a base of yellowish, fibrous wood with exfoliating bark.
The base usually is only about four inches tall, but leafy stems up to 20 inches long grow from it each year. Early in the growing season, stems and leaves are densely covered with gray hairs, giving plants a silvery color. At maturity, the plants appear rust colored because the hairs turn orangish-brown. The tiny, whitish flowers are numerous and form spike-like clusters in the leaf axils on the upper half of the stem. Look for winter fat from May to July on dry clayey or chalky soils where alkali salts form on the surface.