Perennials; (cespitose, loosely matted); caudex branched (with persistent leaf remains, branches sometimes terminating in sterile rosettes); scapose. Stems un-branched, (0.3-)0.5-1.4(-1.8) dm, often glabrous throughout, sometimes pubescent proximally, trichomes stalked, cruciform, 0.07-0.3 mm, with 3-5-rayed ones. Basal leaves rosulate; petiolate; petiole ciliate throughout; blade oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, (0.4-)0.6-1.1(-1.6) cm × 1.5-3 mm, margins entire or minutely denticulate, surfaces pubescent with stalked, cruciform trichomes, 0.07-0.4 mm, (rarely with fewer, 3-5-rayed ones, sometimes both surfaces glabrous and only margins pubescent, not ciliate, midvein obscure abaxially). Cauline leaves 0. Racemes (3-)5-18(-22)-flowered, ebracteate, considerably elongated in fruit; rachis not flexuous, glabrous. Fruiting pedicels divaricate-ascending, (not decurrent basally), straight, (4-)5-10 (-13) mm, glabrous. Flowers: sepals ovate, 1.5-2 mm, glabrous or pubescent distally, (trichomes short-stalked, 4-rayed); petals yellow, spatulate to oblanceolate, 4-5 (-6) × 1.2-2 mm; anthers ovate, 0.4-0.6 mm. Fruits narrowly lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, plane (not curved), flattened, (4-)6-12(-16) × 1.5-3 mm; valves glabrous or puberulent, trichomes simple and short stalked, 2-4-rayed, 0.03-0.15 mm; ovules 6-10(-12) per ovary; style (0.1-)0.3-0.8 mm. Seeds ovoid, 1-1.7 × 0.8-1.3 mm.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Subalpine areas, ridges in pine and fir forests; of conservation concern; 2500-3100 m; Calif.

Draba cruciata is known only from the Sierra Nevada of Tulare County.