Stems erect from short caudices, not rooting nodally, glabrous, not bulbous-based. Tuberous roots absent. Leaves: basal leaf blades ovate to semicircular in outline, ternately or pinnately 2×-compound, 2.4-8.2 × 2-8.5 cm, leaflets parted and again lobed, ultimate segments elliptic to linear, margins entire (or occasionally a lobe reduced to tooth), apex acuminate to rounded. Flowers: receptacle glabrous; sepals spreading or reflexed from base, 3-6 × 1-3 mm, glabrous; petals (0-)5-6, yellow, 3-8 × 1-3 mm. Heads of achenes hemispheric to globose, 4-5 × 6-7 mm; achenes 2.2-3.6 × 1.2-1.8 mm, glabrous; beak filiform, strongly reflexed from base, 0.8-1.5 mm, brittle, often broken. 2 n = 32.

Flowering spring-summer (Apr-Aug). Open grassy or brushy slopes; 1700-2600 m; Colo., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.