Caudices simple or 2-5-branched, 1-2(-3.5) cm diam. Leaves: rosettes usually 10-25-leaved; blade green, rhombic-oblanceolate to spatulate, 1.5-5(-10) × 1-3(-6) cm, apex mostly short-acuminate to cuspidate, surfaces sometimes farinose, glaucous. Inflorescences: floral shoots 5-20-leaved, 5-15(-25) cm; cincinni 3+, 3-6-flowered, mostly 1-3 cm. Petals bright yellow to red, 10-12 × 2.5-4 mm. 2n = 34.

Flowering spring. Rock crevices, rocky slopes; 100-2600 m; Calif.

Plants of subsp. pumila in the San Gabriel Mountains are rather uniformly small, with the rosette leaves rhomboid and short-acuminate to cuspidate. Taken by themselves, they would seem a quite well-distinguished subspecies, and many plants of the Santa Lucia Mountains are similar. Plants of the San Bernardino Mountains are similar but apparently more variable; in the Santa Lucia Mountains the plants are perhaps even more variable, some like subsp. cymosa. Thus there is no clear line between the two subspecies.