Plants 30-70 cm. Leaves: proximal blades 3-8 cm, margins undulate or weakly lobed, faces densely lanate to woolly; cauline leaves (on proximal ¹/2 of stems) lanceolate to ovate (2.5-3.5 cm). Heads 1-3. Involucres obconic to hemispheric, 13-18 mm diam. Phyllaries 8-10 mm, outer lanceolate to narrowly obovate, apices acuminate. Ray florets 16-23; laminae usually yellow, sometimes red-tinged distally, 6-10 mm. Disc corollas yellow (lobes often red-tinged). Cypselae 6-8 mm; pappus scales subequal, 1.5-2 mm.

Flowering late spring-summer. Rocky slopes, talus, and flats, mostly coniferous forest, sometimes chaparral, on granitic and metamorphic substrates; 1200-2100 m; Calif.

Subspecies gabrielensis grows in the San Emigdio and San Gabriel mountains.