Perennials, 3-8 cm; taprooted, caudex branches rhizomelike, relatively slender. Stems erect (simple, ± scapiform), glabrous, glandular. Leaves mostly basal (persistent); blades cuneate to broadly oblanceolate or spatulate, 10-30(-40) × 4-10 mm, cauline restricted to proximal ¹ / 2 of stems, reduced in size and lobing distally, margins with 3-5 lobes, each secondarily 3- toothed or lobed, faces essentially glabrous, glandular. Heads 1. Involucres 7-8 × 10-15 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, glabrous, minutely glandular. Ray florets 50-70; corollas white to lavender or light pink, 6-8 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas ca. 4 mm. Cypselae 1.8-2 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 20 bristles.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Open gravelly soils and talus slopes, granite, limestone cliffs and rock slide areas, alpine meadows; 2800-3800 m; Mont., Wyo.