Perennials, 3-12 cm; taprooted, caudex branches usually relatively short and thick, sometimes apparently simple. Stems erect to decumbent-ascending (greenish proximally), usually hirsute to hirtellous (hairs deflexed, attenuate, basal cells erect), sometimes proximally strigose (hairs ascending), sometimes slightly glandular. Leaves basal (persistent) and cauline; basal blades oblanceolate, 20-60 × 2-6 mm, cauline slightly reduced distally, mostly on proximal ¹ / 2 of stem, margins entire (apices rounded to obtuse), faces strigose to loosely hirsutulous, eglandular. Heads 1(-3). Involucres 5-7 × 10-15 mm. Phyllaries in 2-4 series, hirsute to hirsuto-villous, eglandular. Ray florets 30-60; corollas blue, 6-10 mm, laminae tardily coiling. Disc corollas 3.5-4.5 mm. Cypselae 1.8 mm (immature), 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 20-25 bristles.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Rocky sites, crevices, often at or above timberline, Engelmann spruce krummholz, meadows; (2200-)2700-3500 m; Utah.