Gynoecious (staminate plants unknown). Stems usually stipitate-glandular. Basal leaves spatulate to oblanceolate, faces usually gray-pubescent, adaxial sometimes green-glabrescent. 2n = 56, 60-, 70.

Flowering summer. Moist tundra, disturbed margins of solifluction lobes, unstable, gravelly slopes; 0-2900 m; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Nfld. and Labr. (Labr.), N.W.T., Nunavut, Que., Yukon; Alaska, Mont., Wyo.

Subspecies angustata is apomictic and has a wider geographic range than the amphimictic subsp. monocephala. It is easily recognized by heads borne singly, dark phyllaries, and gynoecious population structure.