Perennials, 6-15(-20) cm; taprooted, caudices or roots relatively thick, sometimes branched, woody, often producing slender, lignescent offsets. Stems ascending-erect, hispidulous to piloso-hirsute (hairs straight, spreading, 0.2-1 mm), eglandular. Leaves cauline; (ascending) blades narrowly oblong-lanceolate to narrowly obovate, 20-40 × 2-5 mm, relatively evenly spaced and sized, margins entire, faces piloso-hirsute, eglandular. Heads 1-5. Involucres (3-)3.5-4.5(-5) × 7-10 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3(-4) series (inner: margins white, broad, thickened, without green apical area), sparsely hairy or glabrous, densely minutely glandular. Ray florets 22-40; corollas lavender to purple, 8-10 mm, laminae weakly coiling. Disc corollas (3.5-)4-5 mm. Cypselae 1.8-2.5 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 18-23 bristles.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Outcrops, ridges, crevices, rocky slopes, over shale, granite, serpentine, peridotite, chaparral, oak-pine, fir-oak, mixed evergreen woodlands; (400-)700-2200 m; Calif., Oreg.