Plants 10-30 cm. Stems probably slender (leafy). Leaves: basal blades lanceolate or narrowly spatulate, 80-120 × 10-18 mm (margins conspicuously spinulose-serrate). Involucres narrowly campanulate, 17 × 20-25 mm. Phyllaries lanceolate to oblong, apices broad, truncate, abruptly mucronate, mucro recurved.

Flowering Sep. Grassland and shrubland communities; of conservation concern; 1600-3100 m; Mont., Wyo.

Variety subsquarrosa is known from about 22 locations in northwestern Wyoming and adjacent southwestern Montana. This taxon is recognized by its low stature and phyllaries with recurved apices.