Biennials, 20-40 cm. Stems usually 1. Leaves: basal rosettes not persistent. Heads in arrays 8-10(-12) × 1-2(-3) cm. Involucres globose. 3-4 × 3.5-5(-6) mm.

Flowering early-late summer. Open meadows; 0-1000 m; Greenland; Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Sask.; Maine.

A more broadly circumscribed interpretation of the subsp. caudata complex would encompass subsp. canadensis.