Perennials, 5-15 cm; taprooted, caudices woody, branches usually vertical or horizontal (2-10 cm), sheathed by persistent leaf bases. Stems erect, glabrous or sparsely villous, sparsely minutely glan-dular. Leaves basal (persistent) and cauline; basal blades sometimes 3-nerved, oblanceolate to obovate or spatulate, 25-90 × 5-17 mm, margins entire or dentate on distal ¹ / 2 or near apices, faces glabrous, sparsely minutely glandular; cauline blades lanceolate to ovate, smaller than basal, often relatively even-sized distally (bases clasping to subclasping). Heads 1(-3) (on branches from proximal axils). Involucres 5-8 × 8-14 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, sparsely to moderately hirsuto-villous, sometimes sparsely minutely glandular. Ray florets 30-50; corollas white, less commonly purplish, 6-10 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 3.7-4.4 mm. Cypselae flattened, 1.9-2.2 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose or glabrous; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 14-20 bristles.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Crevices, talus, rhyolite outcrops, subalpine meadows; 1700-1900 m; Oreg.