Perennials; caudex simple or branched, (usually covered with persistent leaf bases, cespitose); densely pubescent, trichomes (closely appressed), rays distinct, usually bifurcate. Stems several from base, erect, (unbranched, slender), 0.1-0.6 dm. Basal leaves: blade rhombic to obovate, 2-4 cm, margins entire. Cauline leaves: blade linear-oblanceolate, similar to basal. Racemes dense (distally, subumbellate). Fruiting pedicels (divaricate-ascending), 3-5 mm, (densely pubescent). Flowers: sepals (yellowish), oblong to elliptic, 3.5-7 mm, (median pair usually thickened apically, cucullate); petals lingulate to spatulate, 4-7 mm. Fruits (erect), ovate to suborbicular, compressed apically (latiseptate), 3-4 mm; valves pubescent; replum ovate to obovate; ovules 4-6 per ovary; style 2-3 mm. Seeds plump. 2n = 10.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Rocky high ridges, gravel and stony areas, juniper covered knolls, rock crevices, clay hillsides, pinyon-juniper areas, calcareous substrates; 1600-2700 m; Colo., Utah, Wyo.