Basal leaves: petiole (0.2-)0.5 2(-3) cm; blade ovate, obovate, or spatulate, (0.3-)0.7-2 (-2.5) cm × 2-8(-12) mm. Fruiting pedicels (2-)4-15(-22), straight, (15-)25-110(-130) mm. Flowers: sepals purplish, 1.5-1.8 × 0.5-0.8 mm, margins not hyaline; petals 2-2.5 × 0.5-0.8 mm, attenuate to base; filaments 1.4-1.6 mm; anthers 0.15-0.2 mm, gynophore obsolete or, rarely, to 1 mm. Fruits (0.5-)0.6-0.9(-1) cm (slightly longer than wide); valves rounded at each end; style subconical, 0.3-0.8 mm. Seeds strongly compressed, 3.5-5 mm diam., coarsely reticulate (except for wing); wing 0.8-1.2 mm wide. 2n = 16.

Flowering Mar-May. Sagebrush slopes and scabland, dry ground, rocky volcanic flats and outcrops, open moist slopes and banks, gravelly hills, meadows, rocky hillsides, seepy sunny slopes; 300-1700 m; B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Wash.