Plants 15–40 cm, glabrate or sparsely villous, densely stipitate-glandular. Leaves: basal blades lanceolate, 40–80(–160) × 10–30 mm, margins coarsely toothed to biserrate, faces villous to tomentose. Heads 3–6. Involucres 7–11 × 8–15 mm. Phyllaries loose, subequal, green throughout. 2n = 12.

Flowering Jul–Aug. Dry or wet, rocky meadows, forest openings in pine and mixed hardwoods forests; 1200–1500 m; Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg.

Variety hirta intergrades with var. sonchifolia in the northern part of its range.