Plants 10-20 cm. Stems grayish green (at least when young), leafy, faces ± compactly tomentose. Leaves grayish green; blades 1-nerved, linear, 15-40 × 0.8-1 mm, compactly tomentose. Involucres 12-16 mm. Phyllaries 20-26, apices erect, acute to acuminate, abaxial faces glabrous. Corollas 7.8-8.7 mm, tubes glabrous, lobes 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; style appendages longer than stigmatic portions. Cypselae glabrous; pappi 5.2-5.8 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer. Steep slopes on ± barren, gypsiferous, Arapien shale; of conservation concern; ca. 2000 m; Utah.

Variety iridis is known only from Sevier County.