Plants 50-70+ cm (robust). Basal leaves: petiole lengths 1-1.5 times blades; blades broadly lanceolate to subhastate, 40-80+ × 30-40+ mm, margins sharply dentate. Heads 12-20 in open, corymbiform to cymiform arrays. Phyllaries 7-8 mm. 2n = 40, 44, 80.

Flowering early Jul-mid Aug. Damp stream banks, wet meadows, open, wet woodlands; 900-2400 m; Alta., B.C., Sask.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Wash., Wyo.

Plants of var. pseudaurea are much larger and more robust than those of the other two varieties and are distributed throughout the northern Rocky Mountains, the Cascades, and the northern Sierra Nevada, and the Jarbridge and Ruby mountains of Elko County, Nevada. Variety pseudaurea is the most abundant of the three varieties and is seldom confused with any other species.