Perennials or subshrubs, 5-15 cm (cespitose), aromatic. S tems 5-20), gray-green, glabrescent. L eaves persistent. gray-green, mostly basal; proximal blades reduced, mostly less than 1 cm, lobed or entire; distal blades 1-2 × 0.5-0.8 cm, 1-2-ternately lobed, lobes 1-2 mm wide, apices acute, faces densely tomentose. Heads (mostly 6-15, 1 or 3-4 on lateral branches; mostly erect, sessile or pedunculate) in racemiform-paniculiform arrays, 5-8 × 0.5-0.8 cm. Involucres globose, 3-4 × 3-4 mm. P hyllaries (margins scarious, obscured) white-tomentose. Florets: pistillate 4-7; functionally staminate 5-9; corollas yellow, usually red-tinged, 2-3 mm, glabrous. Cypselae (brown) ellipsoid (angled), 0.8-1 mm, (sometimes with white ribs) glabrous.

Flowering early spring-mid summer. High plains, grasslands; 1600-1800 m; Colo., Idaho, Mont., Wyo.