Leaf blades (proximal) 5-35 cm × 4-15 mm. Phyllaries 7-14 mm. Disc corollas 5-8 mm. Ray cypselae 5-7 mm; pappi 0 or to 0.7 mm. Disc cypselae 5-9 mm; pappi 1-5 mm. 2n = 12.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Meadows, stream banks; 1000-2600 m; Calif., Nev., Oreg.

Kyhosia bolanderi is unusual among continental tarweeds for occurring in wet, montane habitats, in the North Coast Ranges, Klamath Ranges, and Sierra Nevada of the California Floristic Province. Ecologically, K. bolanderi is similar to another self-incompatible, robust, rhizomatous, perennial tarweed, Raillardella pringlei, which occurs with K. bolanderi in the Klamath Ranges.