Perennials, 40-50 cm; taprooted, caudices simple. Stems erect (arising from crowns, without axillary leaf tufts), glabrous or glabrate, eglandular. Leaves mostly cauline; blades linear, 20-40 × 0.6-0.8 mm (mid and distal longer than internodes), barely reduced distally, margins entire, ascending-ciliate (cilia thin-based), faces glabrous, eglandular. Heads 1 or 2-4 in loosely corymbiform arrays. Involucres 4.5-5 × 9-12 mm. Phyllaries in 3-5 series (inner: margins narrowly scarious), glabrate (barely perceptible), densely and minutely glandular. Ray florets 9-13; corollas white, drying blue, 7-8 mm, laminae weakly coiling. Disc corollas 3.2-4 mm (throats slightly indurate, not inflated). Cypselae (mature size not observed), 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 26-32 bristles.

Flowering May-Aug. Shrubby vegetation over serpentine; of conservation concern; 400-600 m; Calif.