Perennials; (cespitose, pul-vinate); caudex branched (with persistent leaves, branches sometimes terminating in sterile rosettes); scapose. Stems unbranched, 0.1-0.5 dm, glabrous. Basal leaves rosulate; sessile; blade (not fleshy), narrowly oblanceolate or lanceolate to linear, (0.2-)0.3-0.8 cm × 0.5-1.6(-2) mm, margins entire (ciliate, trichomes simple, 0.1-0.8 mm, apex acute, trichomes usually longer), surfaces glabrous, (midvein obscure abaxially). Cauline leaves 0. Racemes 2-5(-7)-flowered, ebracteate, slightly elongated in fruit; rachis not flexuous, glabrous. Fruiting pedicels divaricate-ascending, straight or slightly curved, 2-6 mm, glabrous. Flowers: sepals (persistent to near fruit maturity), ovate to broadly oblong, 2-3 mm, glabrous; petals white to pale yellow, obovate, 2.5-4 × 1.2-2 mm; anthers oblong, 0.4-0.6 mm. Fruits ovate, plane, flattened, 4.5-8 × 2.5-4 mm; valves (distinctly veined), glabrous; ovules 8-16 per ovary; style (0.1-)0.2-0.6 mm. Seeds oblong, 1.1-1.4 × 0.8-1 mm.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Ridges, talus, alpine tundra and meadows; 2700-3900 m; Idaho, Mont., Utah, Wyo.

Draba globosa is an apomictic species closely related to D. burkei (M. D. Windham, unpubl.). Though often treated as a variety of D. densifolia, it is morphologically and phyletically distinct from that species. Both R. C. Rollins (1993) and N. H. Holmgren (2005b) indicated that the species occurs in Colorado, but we have not seen material for that state.