Perennials, 5-15 cm; taprooted, caudices relatively slender-branched. Stems erect to slightly basally ascending (shiny-white or purplish), strigose, eglandular. Leaves mostly basal (usually persistent) and cauline on proximal ¹ / 4 of stems; blades narrowly oblanceolate, 20-50 × 1.5-5 mm (bases abruptly widened, thickened, white-indurate, sheathing stem), margins entire, faces strigose, eglandular. Heads 1. Involucres 5.5-9 × 13-18 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, sparsely and finely spreading-hairy, eglandular. Ray florets 15-35; corollas white or blue, drying bluish, 7-15 mm, laminae weakly coiling. Disc corollas 4.5-7 mm. Cypselae (2-)3-3.7 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 25-40(-50) bristles. 2n = 18.

Flowering Jun-Jul(-Aug). Gravelly or rocky slopes, sagebrush-pine to subalpine forest; 2100-3300 m; Calif.

The variability in cypsela size is unusual.