Perennials, 10-20 cm; tapooted, caudices woody, branches rhizomelike. Stems ascending-erect, sparsely villous, minutely stipitate-glandular at least distally. Leaves cauline; blades narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 6-20(-25) × 1.5-3(-5) mm, barely reduced distally, margins entire, faces sparsely short-villous, minutely glandular, sometimes minutely stipitate-glandular. Heads 1(-3). Involucres 3.5-4 × 7-10 mm. Phyllaries in 3-5 series, sparsely strigose at bases or glabrous, minutely glandular. Ray florets 14-24(-30); corollas white, drying blue, 5-8 mm, laminae weakly coiling. Disc corollas (2.8-)3.8-4.5 mm (throats slightly indurate, not inflated). Cypselae 2.2-2.5 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 20-35 bristles. 2n = 18.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Ledges and crevices, pinyon-juniper to montane coniferous; of conservation concern; 1500-2500 m; Calif.