Stems ascending to erect, slender, 10-50 cm. Leaf faces glabrous or nearly so. Heads usually short-pedunculate, in erect, short, racemiform or spiciform arrays, rarely openly branched. Involucres 2-2.5 cm, thinly arachnoid-tomentose or glabrate, individual phyllaries evident. Phyllaries sometimes suffused with dark purple; outer with few-many lateral spines; apical spines slender to stout. Corollas purple, 17-26 mm, tubes 5-10 mm, throats 4.5-10.5 mm, lobes 5.5-7.5 mm. Pappi 15-19 mm.

Flowering summer (Jul-Sep). Rocky slopes, canyons, pinyon-juniper woodlands to alpine, montane coniferous forests, subalpine forests, alpine slopes; 2100-3500 m; Nev., Utah.

Variety eatonii is distributed on various of the sky islands in the Basin and Range province of Nevada and Utah. Habitats vary from shaded forest understory sites to forest openings or open exposed sites.