Perennials (± taprooted). Proximal leaves alternate; blades mostly oblanceolate, 1-pinnately lobed (usually beginning in distal ¹/2 of leaf, lobes 5-7), ultimate margins usually toothed or serrate, rarely entire, revolute, abaxial faces densely woolly, adaxial less so. Heads 2-5 per array or borne singly. Peduncles mostly 5-15(-20) cm. Involucres 10-15 mm diam. Ray florets (8-)11-13; laminae 10-20 mm. Cypselae (3.4-)3.5-5 mm; pappi 0.4-1.8 mm. 2n = 16, 32.

Flowering May-Jun. Dry, rocky sites, sagebrush, forests; 200-1100 m; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.

Variety lanatum intergrades with var. leucophyllum near the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon, and to the south and west with var. integrifolium (see above). It closely resembles var. grandiflorum; their distributions are disjunct.