Perennials, 0.5-3.5 cm (mat-forming); taprooted (taproots weakly developed, often not evident), caudices with system of relatively slender, basal offsets and slender, woody rhizomes (1-15 cm). Stems (bases greenish) decumbent to ascending (flowering erect, scapiform), sparsely strigose, eglandular. Leaves basal (persistent); blades (bases greenish) spatulate (often folding), 5-12 × 1-3.5 mm, margins entire, faces glabrous or sparsely strigose, eglandular. Heads 1. Involucres 4-4.5 × 4-7 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4(-5) series (erect, apices appressed), glabrous or sparsely strigose, sometimes minutely glandular. Ray florets 10-20; corollas white, 5.5-9 mm, laminae reflexing. Disc corollas 2.8-3.8 mm (throats slightly indurate and inflated). Cypselae 1.5-1.8 mm, 2(-3)-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 13-18 bristles. 2n = 18.

Flowering May-Jun(-Jul). Crevices and soil pockets of porphyritic or rhyolitic cliffs; 2000-2900 m; Ariz., N.Mex.