Plants (15-)25-40(-60) cm. Basal leaves: blades (whitish to grayish) oblong-ovate to lance-elliptic, 18-38 cm, margins usually entire, sometimes serrulate or dentate (often undulate), faces densely tomentose to tomentulose (usually gland-dotted as well), glabrescent; cauline leaves (3-6) similar, smaller. Heads usually borne singly (-2+). Involucres hemispheric or broader, 35-60+ mm diam. Phyllaries 16-24, unequal, herbaceous, margins not ciliolate, faces tomentose; outer (30-)40-80+ mm (foliaceous, much surpassing the discs). Ray florets 13-21; laminae 20-35(-50) mm. Cypselae 12-15 mm, distally strigillose. 2n = 38. Flowering (Feb-)Mar-May. Grassy slopes, openings in woodlands; 10 -1600(-2000) m; Calif. Wyethia helenioides grows in the Sierra Nevada foothills and west of the Central Valley, avoiding the fog belt.