Plants 10-20 cm (intricately branched). Leaves moderately crowded, green; blades 1-nerved, linear, 20-35 × 1-2 mm, faces glabrous, viscidulous; distal overtopping arrays. Heads 2-5 in ± cymiform arrays or borne singly. Involucres 10-11.5 mm. Phyllaries (11-)13-18, ± chartaceous, outer apices long-acuminate, herbaceous, inner acuminate (viscidulous). Florets (4-)5-12; corollas yellow, 9-10 mm, tubes finely glandular-puberulent, throats gradually dilated, lobes 1.4-1.7 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Rocky slopes near timberline; of conservation concern; ca. 2900 m; Idaho, Mont.

Variety montana is known only from Red Conglomerate Peaks at the Idaho/Montana border.