Plants 30-100 cm. Leaves usually crowded, green; blades 3-nerved (only midnerves prominent), linear, 30-80 × 2-3 mm, faces glabrous or puberulent, often minutely stipitate-glandular, ± resinous; distalmost overtopping arrays. Heads usually 5-12+ in racemiform arrays. Involucres 9-12 mm. Phyllaries 10-15, mostly chartaceous, outermost sometimes herbaceous-tipped, apices erect, attenuate. Florets 8-20; corollas yellow, 7.9-10 mm, tubes sparsely hairy, throats gradually dilated, lobes 1.4-2.1 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Open, dry hillsides and plains; 2000-2900 m; Colo., Nev., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.

Variety parryi is widespread in the Rocky Mountain region.