Plants 20-60 cm. Stems villous. Leaves: basal blades lanceolate, 60-200 × 5-16 mm, not thin or succulent, margins entire or denticulate-spinulose, faces densely villous. Heads in spiciform or racemiform arrays (internodes long). Involucres campanulate to hemispheric, 10-15 × 12-15 mm. Phyllaries green, margins sometimes ciliate, apices erect, acute to obtuse, mucronate, faces densely villous. Cypsela faces sericeous.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Mountain meadows, openings in conifer forests; 600-1700 m; Calif.

Variety pinetorum is recognized by its strict habit, villous stems and phyllaries, and relatively large heads in open racemiform arrays. It is thought to be most closely related to var. congesta (D. D. Keck 1940).