Perennials; (loosely cespitose); caudex branched (somewhat surculose, with persistent leaf bases, branches sometimes terminating in sterile rosettes); scapose. Stems unbranched, 0.3-1.2 dm, glabrous throughout. Basal leaves rosulate; petiolate; petiole (persistent, midvein prominent), ciliate, (trichomes sparse, short-stalked, 2-4-rayed, sometimes with simple ones, 0.2-0.5 mm); blade (somewhat fleshy), oblanceolate or spatulate to obovate, 0.3-1.5 cm × 1.5-5 mm, margins entire, (pubescent as petiole), surfaces glabrous. Cauline leaves 0. Racemes 2-6-flowered, ebracteate, elongated in fruit; rachis not flexuous, glabrous. Fruiting pedicels divaricate-ascending, straight, 3-8 mm, usually glabrous, rarely trichomes simple. Flowers: sepals ovate, 3-4 mm, glabrous; petals yellow, oblanceolate, 5-7 × 1.3-2 mm; anthers oblong, 0.7-0.9 mm. Fruits lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, plane, strongly flattened, 10-23 × 4-6 mm; valves (each with distinct midvein), glabrous; ovules 8-12 per ovary; style 2-3 mm. Seeds (broadly winged), orbicular, 3-4.5 in diam.; (wing 1-1.5 mm wide).

Flowering Jun-Jul. Open rocky hillsides; of conservation concern; 2800-3100 m; Calif.

Although Draba carnosula was reduced by Hitchcock to a variety of D. howellii, it differs significantly by having leafless flowering stems, 2-6-flowered racemes, and broadly winged seeds 3-4.5 mm in diam. Draba howellii almost always has 1-3-leaved stems, (5-) 7-18(-25)-flowered racemes, and not winged, distally appendaged seeds 1-1.6 mm in diam. Draba carnosula is known only from a few collections from Mount Eddy in Trinity County and the north side of Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County.