Plants herbs, erect, not scapose, 4–8 (15) dm tall, 1–4 dm across, glabrous or villous; stems erect, without persistent leaf bases, up to 1/5 height of plant, the caudex stems absent, the aerial flowering stems erect, slender to stout, solid or hollow, infrequently fistulose, 1.5–4 (8) dm long, villous; leaves basal, the petioles 5–25 cm long, villous, the blades lanceolate to lance-ovate, 4–15 (25) cm long, 1.5–6 cm wide, loosely villous and green on both surfaces or infrequently thinly tomentose abaxially and glabrate adaxially, the margins plane; inflorescences cymose, 15–50 cm long, 10–30 cm wide, the branches villous, the bracts 3, semi-foliaceous, linear, and 5–30 mm long, 2–5 mm wide proximally, scalelike, triangular, and 1–4 mm long distally; peduncles absent or slender, erect, 0.5–4 cm long, glabrous or tomentose; involucres 1 per node or 2–5 per cluster, turbinate, (2.5) 3–4 mm long, 2.5–3 mm wide, glabrous or slightly tomentose, the teeth 5, erect, 0.4–0.9 mm long; flowers 2.5–4 mm long, glabrous, the perianth white, pubescent abaxially, the hypanthium 1⁄4 length of perianth, the tepals monomorphic, obovate, the stamens exserted, 2.5–4 mm long, the filaments pilose proximally; achenes light brown, 3.5–4 mm long, glabrous.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Sandy to gravelly slopes and flats, sagebrush communities, pinyon and/or juniper and montane conifer woodlands; 500–2000 (2500) m; Siskiyou/Trinity mountains of southern Oregon (Jackson, Josephine, and Klamath cos.) and northern California (Siskiyou and Trinity cos.), and in the Sierra Nevada of California (Nevada, Placer, Plumas, and Shasta cos.) and Nevada (Carson City, Douglas, and Washoe cos.).