Perennials; caudex simple or branched; densely pubescent, trichomes (short-stalked), several-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (sometimes slightly umbonate, prominently tuberculate). Stems simple or few from base, prostrate to decumbent (arising laterally from a tuft of leaves, unbranched), 0.5-1.5 dm. Basal leaves: blade suborbicular, deltate to rhombic, or elliptic, margins entire or sparsely dentate, 2-4(-6) cm. Cauline leaves (shortly petiolate); blade oblanceolate to linear, 1-2(-3) cm, margins entire. Racemes loose, (sometimes elongated). Fruiting pedicels (sigmoid), 5-10 mm. Flowers: sepals lanceolate, 3.5-6(-8) mm; petals obovate to oblanceolate, (5-)7-8.5(-10) mm. Fruits obcordate to truncate or obcompressed, slightly compressed (angustiseptate, inflated at lobe tips), 3-6 mm (wider than long); valves densely pubescent, trichomes appressed or slightly spreading; (septum usually fenestrate); ovules 4-8 per ovary; style (slender), 3-6.5 mm, (often pubescent). Seeds flattened. 2n = 10.

Flowering May-Aug. Dry sandy or gravelly soils, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, and juniper communities, steep hillsides, rocky ridges, talus, whitish clay hills; 1500-2700 m; Calif., Idaho, Nev., Utah.