Perennials, to 150 cm (rhizomes stout, plants not colonial, roots fibrous). Leaves green, ovate to elliptic or deltate, pinnate to pinnatifid or lyrate-pinnatifid, herbaceous, faces moderately to densely hairy (hairs 1-seriate); basal petiolate, 25-70 × 8-45 cm, lobes 3-9, bases rounded to acute, apices acute; cauline petiolate or sessile, 12-50 × 5-40 cm, bases attenuate to cuneate, ultimate margins dentate to lobed, apices acute. Heads borne singly or (2-10) in ± corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries to 6 cm (foliaceous, faces scabrous). Receptacles columnar; paleae 5-7 mm, apices obtuse to acute, often apiculate, abaxial tips hairy. Ray florets 0. Discs 30-80 × 18-30 mm. Disc florets 300-500; corollas brown-purple, 4.2-5.8 mm; style branches ca. 2 mm, apices acute. Cypselae 3.5-5 mm; pappi of 4 scales, to 1 mm.

Flowering mid summer-fall. Thickets, bogs, along streams; of conservation concern; 200-1500 m; Wash.

Rudbeckia alpicola is known only from Chelan and Kittitas counties.