Plants 20-60 cm. Leaves moderately crowded, green to gray; blades 1-nerved, linear, 15-40 × 0.5-3 mm, faces densely tomentulose, gland-dotted, resinous; distalmost seldom overtopping arrays. Heads 5-10+ in racemiform to narrowly paniculiform arrays. Involucres 11-15 mm. Phyllaries 24-28, chartaceous, apices ± recurved (tan or greenish), attenuate. Florets 4-6; corollas clear yellow, 9-10.5 mm, tubes glabrous or sparsely hairy, throats gradually dilated, lobes 1-1.5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Scrub, open yellow-pine forests, rarely on serpentine; 1100-3300 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Oreg., Utah.

In California, var. nevadensis is found in the central and northern Sierra Nevada and in the Great Basin.