Plants 10-40 cm. Leaves basal and cauline, basal petiolate, blades 3-nerved, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5-12 cm × 6-30 mm, distal cauline slightly smaller, oblanceolate, faces concolor or weakly bicolor, grayish, thinly woolly. Heads (10-60+) in compact, spiciform (leafy-bracteate, sometimes interrupted) arrays (1.5-14 cm, occupying ¹/8-¹/4 of plant heights, primary axes usually not visible). Involucres cylindro-campanulate, 5.5-6 mm. Phyllaries brown to reddish brown with narrow pale center and base. Cypselae cylindric, minutely strigose; pappus bristles basally connate, falling together. 2n = 56.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Wet or peaty slopes, alpine and subalpine meadows, cliff ledges, rocky slopes; 400-1300 m; Greenland; Nfld. and Labr., Que.; Europe.