Leaf blades usually greenish, villous to glabrous and capitate-glandular, or occasionally lanate. Peduncles villous to glabrous or occasionally lanate immediately proximal to heads, usually capitate-glandular. Mid phyllaries 1.3-2.2 (-2.4) mm wide, wholly green or margins narrowly scarious to 0.2 mm wide. 2n = 18.

Flowering late spring; fruiting early summer. Open pine forests, alpine meadows, and sagebrush steppe on granitic, basaltic, or seldomly calcareous soils; 1200-3500 m; Idaho, Mont. 2n = 18.

Populations from west-central Idaho assigned to var. andersonii on the basis of phyllary width tend to be intermediate with the typical variety. Larger collections often turn up one or two eglandular individuals. Populations from Montana are frequently lanate and eglandular. They have been included in this variety based on phyllary characters alone.