Perennials, 3-10 cm; taprooted, caudices sometimes multicipital, branches relatively short and thick, sometimes relatively long and slender. Stems ascending to decumbent-ascending, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves mostly basal (persistent); blades narrowly oblanceolate to spatulate (often folding), 15-60 × 1-5 mm, cauline abruptly reduced distally, margins entire, abaxial faces glabrous, adaxial sparsely strigose, eglandular. Heads 1(-2). Involucres 4-7 × 5-10 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series (inner usually with purple margins), glabrous, minutely glandular. Ray florets 13-25, corollas white to pink, 4-6 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing, spreading. Disc corollas 2.8-4 mm. Cypselae 2-3.2 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 25-35 (straw-colored, dull) bristles.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Gravelly or rocky slopes, ridge tops, talus, soil pockets, sagebrush, limber pine-fir; 2400-3300 m; Idaho, Nev., Utah.