Plants 10-30 cm. Stems (often reddish purple) mostly simple. Leaves 3-4 pairs, mostly cauline (basal often persistent on sterile rosettes); petiolate (petioles usually narrow, proximalmost sometimes broadly winged); blades (often reddish purple) usually elliptic to ovate, sometimes subcordate, 1.5-8 × 1.5-4 cm (often relatively thick, nearly succulent), margins usually entire or serrate, sometimes crenate or slightly lobed, apices acute to rounded, faces glabrous or scabrous. Heads usually 1, sometimes 2-3 (often nodding in bud). Involucres campanulate-turbinate. Phyllaries 8-14, ovate to broadly lanceolate. Ray florets 5-10; corollas yellow to slightly orange. Disc florets: corollas yellow; anthers yellow. Cypselae dark gray, 6-8 mm, sparsely to densely hirsute (hairs duplex); pappi white, bristles usually barbellate, sometimes subplumose. 2n = 38.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Serpentine soils, conifer forests; 500-1500 m; Calif., Oreg.