Plants 10-30 cm. Stems (often 5-10 in dense clumps) branched distal-ly. Leaves 2-3 pairs, mostly cauline (basal leaves often persistent on sterile rosettes, similar to cauline leaves); petiolate (petioles narrowly to broadly winged, distal pair of leaves often reduced, connate-perfoliate); blades ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2-6 × 1-3 cm, margins irregularly serrate to subentire, apices acute, faces: abaxial glandular, adaxial stipitate-glandular. Heads (1-)5-15. Involucres turbinate-campanulate. Phyllaries 10-16, ovate-lanceolate. Ray florets 5-12; corollas yellow. Disc florets: corollas yellow; anthers yellow. Cypselae black, 4.5-7 mm, hairy (hairs duplex) and stipitate-glandular; pappi white, bristles barbellate. 2n = 57, 76.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Dry, exposed, rocky, alpine slopes, sometimes subalpine meadows; 1200-2500 m; Alta., B.C.; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.