Perennials; (short-lived); caudex simple or branched (poorly developed, with persistent dry leaves); not scapose. Stems unbranched or branched, 0.3-1.5 dm, hirsute throughout, trichomes simple and long-stalked, 2-4-rayed, 0.2-1.5 mm. Basal leaves (forming dense clusters); rosulate; sessile; blade oblanceolate to linear, (0.7-)1-2.5(-3.2) cm × 2-3.5(-5) mm, margins entire, (ciliate, trichomes simple and 2-rayed, 0.5-1.5 mm), surfaces densely hirsute, abaxially with stalked, 3-5-rayed trichomes, 0.1-0.5 mm, adaxially with simple and long-stalked, 2-rayed trichomes, to 1 mm, with smaller, 3-5-rayed ones. Cauline leaves 5-33; sessile; blade oblong to linear, margins entire, surfaces pubescent as basal. Racemes 12-83-flowered, ebracteate or proximalmost 1-9 flowers bracteate, slightly or not elongated in fruit; rachis not flexuous, hirsute as stem. Fruiting pedicels horizontal to divaricate, usually straight, rarely curved upward, (3-)5-12(-19) mm, hirsute as stem. Flowers: sepals ovate, 2.5-4 mm, gla- brous; petals bright yellow, linear to linear-oblanceolate, 4-6 × 0.5-1(-1.2) mm; anthers narrowly oblong, 0.8-1 mm. Fruits oblong or, rarely, oblong-ovate, plane, flattened, (6-)9-14(-16) × 3-5 mm; valves pubescent, trichomes stalked, 2-4-rayed, 0.07-0.5 mm; ovules 10-20 per ovary; style (0.6-)1-1.6(-2) mm. Seeds oblong, 1.4-1.9 × 0.8-1.1 mm. 2n = 20.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Open conifer forests, alpine meadows and moraines, talus slopes; 2200-3200 m; Calif., Oreg., Wash.

Draba aureola is known from Lassen, Shasta, and Siskiyou counties in California, Deschutes County in Oregon, and Lewis and Pierce counties in Washington.