Stems simple, densely hirsute, sparsely minutely glandular; stems and basal leaves originating from compressed nodes at caudex apices. Heads 1. Involucres densely hirsute, sparsely minutely glandular. Ray florets 15–45.

Flowering Apr–Jun(–Aug). Shallow soil, open rocky, gravelly, or sandy slopes, grassland, sagebrush and rabbitbrush plains, juniper woodland, yellow pine and pine-juniper; 100–1600 m; B.C.; Idaho, Oreg., Wash.