Plants 20-50 cm. Stems (grayish green) densely puberulent. Leaf blades pale grayish green, usually 1-nerved, sometimes 3-nerved proximally, narrowly linear, 10-40 × 1-2 mm, often twisted, canaliculate, margins flat or involute, puberulent, apices acute, faces densely puberulent. Heads in small, compact, cymiform arrays. Involucres turbinate, 5-7 mm. Phyllaries 14-16 in 3-4 series, in weakly aligned vertical ranks, midveins obscure to evident distally, ± keeled, oblong, unequal, margins scarious, entire to ciliolate, subapical green patch sometimes present, apices obtuse or outer barely acute, faces puberulent. Disc florets mostly 5; corollas 5-6 mm, lobes 0.7-1.2 mm.

Flowering summer-fall. Subalpine slopes; 1500-3000 m; Ariz., Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg., Utah.