Herbs, loosely matted, 0.4-1.2 × 1-3 dm. Leaf blades oblance-olate to elliptic, 0.2-0.4(-0.5) × 0.05-0.15(-0.2) cm, grayish- to brownish-white-tomentose, margins occasionally revolute. Scapes 4-12 cm, glabrous. Involucres 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely tomentose. Flowers 1.5-2.5 mm. Achenes 2-2.5 mm.

Flowering Apr-Jul. Gravelly to rocky flats and slopes, sagebrush and montane conifer woodlands; 1700-2700 m; Calif.

Variety kennedyi is known from the Mt. Pinos-Lockwood Valley area of Ventura County and the eastern San Bernardino Mountains of San Bernardino County. It is not always clearly distinct morphologically from var. austromontanum in the latter location. However, Kennedy's wild buckwheat flowers earlier than the San Bernardino Mountains wild buckwheat, and the two can be distinguished on that basis.