Plants 2-8(-12) cm. Leaves mostly basal (in persistent rosettes); blades 1-nerved, linear to linear-oblanceolate, 5-25 × 3 mm, cauline similar, faces concolor, gray-green, thinly woolly. Heads (usually 1-7) in subcapitate to loose, spiciform arrays. Involucres campanulate, 5-6 mm. Phyllaries light green to tan, oblong to lanceolate, outer obtuse, inner mostly acute, margins and tips dark brown. Cypselae obovoid, strigose; pappus bristles distinct, falling separately. 2n = 28.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Granite outcrops, gravelly slopes, other alpine sites; 200-1300 m; Greenland; Nfld. and Labr., Que.; Maine, N.H., Vt.; Europe; Asia (Caucasus, Iran).