Shrubs, 50-200 cm. Stems 1-5+, erect, spiny, unevenly pannose with glabrescent streaks. Leaves: primaries forming ascending spines, 10-30 mm; secondaries filiform to clavate, 3-20 (× 1+) mm, glabrous or nearly so. Heads 2-5. Peduncles 1-4 mm. Involucres turbinate, ca. 7 mm. Phyllaries 5, oval-elliptic. Florets 5; corollas pale yellow, ca. 9 mm. Cypselae 2.5-3.5 mm, glabrous; pappi of 75-100 bristles ca. 8 mm. 2n = 60.

Flowering summer. Rocky sites, pinyon-juniper woodlands; 1400-2100 m; Calif.