Plants 10-20 cm. Leaves crowded, gray; blades 1-nerved, spatulate to linear-spatulate, 10-15 × 2-3 mm, faces densely tomentose, eglandu-lar ; distalmost not overtopping arrays. Heads usually 3-5 in ± racemiform arrays. Involucres 10-12 mm. Phyllaries ca. 16, chartaceous, apices erect (outer sometimes herbaceous, reddish), abruptly acute. Florets 10-18; corollas 10-12 mm, tubes glabrous or sparsely villous, throats ± abruptly dilated, lobes 1.4-1.5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Dry flats and yellow-pine forests; 2000-2200 m; Calif.

Variety imula is known only from southern San Bernardino County.