Plants 20-70 cm, eglandular. Stems 1-7+, glabrous proximally, sometimes thinly scabridulous distally. Leaf blades oblong or elliptic-oblong to lanceolate (sometimes narrowly), 40-120 × 5-25 mm, faces glabrous. Heads 2-116+. Peduncles glabrous or sometimes thinly scabridulous or villosulous; bracts 0-2, foliaceous, margins villoso-ciliate or glabrous. Involucres campanulate, 6-9 mm. Phyllaries 15-35, glabrous. Ray florets (8-)10-15(-19); laminae 8-18 × 0.7-1.3 mm. Disc florets 12-32; corollas 6.8-7.5 mm, lobes 0.7-1.3 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering summer-fall. Open, rocky slopes, often on calcareous substrates, saline seeps at lower elevations, in sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, and hanging gardens communities; 800-3700 m; Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Mont., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.