Perennials, (15-)25-55 cm (not colonial); taprooted, taproots thin (2-3 mm wide), caudices simple or with relatively slender and short, erect branches. Stems (often purplish) erect or decumbent, sparsely strigillose (basal cells inclined, hairs even-width), eglandular. Leaves basal (often withering by flowering) and cauline; basal blades (3-nerved) linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 90-170 × 3-7 mm, cauline gradually reduced distally, ending proximal to heads, margins entire, faces strigoso-hirsute, eglandular. Heads 1-3. Involucres 6-8.5 × (12-)14-20 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3(-4) series (narrowly oblanceolate to lanceolate, acute-acuminate), sparsely to moderately hirsute to villous, eglandular. Ray florets 21-36; corollas 7-15(-19) mm, laminae white to pinkish, not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 3.5-4.5 mm. Cypselae (1.8-)2-3.2 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae , inner of 15-22 bristles.

Flowering Jun-Jul. Rocky or gravelly slopes, sometimes over serpentine, glades and meadows, seeps, sagebrush-scrub, proximal montane coniferous forest; (200-)700-1500 m; Calif.