Plants 5-15 cm. Leaves: proximal blades spatulate, 1-4 cm, margins dentate to lobed, faces: abaxial densely lanate to woolly, adaxial glandular-puberulent. Heads 1. Involucres obconic to hemispheric, 15-18 mm diam. Phyllaries narrowly oblanceolate to obovate, 8-10 mm, (margins scarious) apices acuminate. Ray florets 9-20; laminae orange to reddish orange, 7-10 mm. Disc corollas orange. Cypselae 7-9 mm; pappus scales equal, 1.5-2 mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering late spring-summer. Alpine to subalpine rocky slopes and talus, granitic or volcanic substrates; of conservation concern; 3000-3900 m; Calif.

Subspecies pygmaea grows in the San Bernardino Mountains and the southern Sierra Nevada.