Plants 4-7 dm. Aerial flowering stems stout, often fistulose, 2-5 dm, usually glabrous, rarely floccose. Leaf blades ovate to deltoid, (2-)7-25 × 2-8 cm. Involucres sparsely to densely lanate. Flowers 5-6 mm; perianth pale to bright yellow. 2n = 40.

Flowering Apr-Jul. Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities, oak and montane conifer woodlands; 30-2500 m; Calif., Idaho, Oreg., Wash.

Variety compositum is widespread and common from central-northern Washington and west-central Idaho south through Oregon to northern California.