Basal leaves: blade obovate to spatulate, apex obtuse or rounded. Cauline leaves: blade broadly oblong to ovate or suborbicular, apex rounded to obtuse. Fruits 2.5-6 (-7) mm wide; stigma subentire to strongly 2-lobed. 2n = 28, 56.

Flowering Apr-Jul. Dry stony slopes, sandy draws, limestone ledges, gravelly knolls, pinyon-juniper woodlands, sagebrush, open pine forests; 500-3100 m; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Utah, Wyo.

Some authors (e.g., R. E. Buck et al. 1993; R. C. Rollins 1993; N. H. Holmgren 2005b) reported var. cordatus (as Streptanthus cordatus) to have 2n = 24. That count must be an error, one that has been perpetuated in the literature since it was first reported in 1939 (S. I. Warwick and I. A. Al-Shehbaz 2006).