Plants 15-35 cm. Stems mostly simple. Leaves 3-8 pairs, mostly crowded toward bases; petiolate (at least proximal); blades elliptic to oblanceolate or obovate, 5-10 × 0.5-3.5 cm, margins entire, apices acute, faces densely hairy (hairs relatively short, curly) and sessile-glandular (distal leaves sessile, much reduced). Heads 1-6. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric. Phyllaries 5-12 (in 1 series), oblong or elliptic. Ray florets 5-12; corollas yellow. Disc florets (functionally staminate): corollas yellow; anthers yellow (styles rarely exserted). Cypselae brown to black, 4-10 mm, sparsely to densely hirsute (hairs usually simple, rarely duplex) and sparsely stipitate-glandular; pappi 0. 2n = 38, 76.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Open forests, meadows, slopes; 1200-2400 m; Calif.

Although Arnica dealbata lacks pappi, morphologic, cytologic, and molecular data (B. G. Baldwin and B. L. Wessa 2000; Baldwin et al. 2002) clearly support its inclusion in Arnica.