Perennials; caudex simple or branched, (cespitose); (silvery) pubescent throughout, trichomes several-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (relatively massive, smooth to few-tubercled). Stems several from base, usually decumbent to ascending, (arising laterally, unbranched, coarse), 1-2 dm. Basal leaves: blade pandurate or obovate, 3-6 cm, margins usually deeply and broadly incised, rarely subentire, (apex obtuse). Cauline leaves: blade oblanceolate to spatulate, similar to basal, (3-6 mm wide), margins entire, (apex often somewhat acute). Racemes congested, (elongated in fruit). Fruiting pedicels (usually curving upward, sigmoid), 6-10 mm. Flowers: sepals oblong, 6-8 mm; petals spatulate, to 10 mm. Fruits didymous, irregular in shape, somewhat angular, inflated, 5-7 × 6-8 mm, (papery, often rigid, base obtuse or truncate, apical sinus broad, open and deep); valves (retaining seeds after dehiscence), pubescent, trichomes spreading, loose; replum oblong, often constricted, as wide as or wider than fruit, apex obtuse; ovules 4 per ovary; style 5-7 mm. Seeds flattened. 2n = 8, 16.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Rocky hillsides, dry banks, gravel and sand, granitic slopes, soil scree, red shale; 1600-3000 m; Colo.