Plants herbs, spreading, 1–3.5 dm tall, 2–4 (6) dm across, hirtellous to glabrescent; stems with caudex spreading, the aerial flowering stems erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, arising at nodes of caudex branches and at distal nodes of short, non-flowering aerial branches, 0.8–2.5 (3) dm long, essentially glabrous; leaves basal, occasionally in rosettes, the petioles 0.3–4 cm long, hirtellous, the blades broadly oblanceolate to elliptic or ovate, 0.5–2 (2.5) cm long, 0.3–0.8 (1.2) cm wide, hirtellous to glabrescent, the margins plane, entire; inflorescences subcapitate, (1.5) 2–5 cm wide, the branches subglabrous, the bracts 5, semi-foliaceous, 0.2–0.5 cm long, 0.1–0.2 cm wide, absent immediately below involucre; involucres 1 per node (often appearing clustered), narrowly turbinate, 5–6 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, hirtellous, the teeth 5–6, erect, 0.8–1 mm long; flowers 3–3.5 (4) mm long, including a 0.1–0.2 mm long stipelike base, the perianth bright yellow, sparsely white-pilose abaxially, the tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl spatulate, 2.5–3 mm long wide, those of inner whorl oblanceolate, 1 mm long wide, the stamens exserted, 3–5 mm long, the filaments pilose proximally; achenes light brown, 3–3.5 mm long, glabrous except for pubescent beak.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Serpentine slopes and outcrops, oak and conifer woodlands; of conservation concern; (1100) 1300–1700 (2000) m; Klamath Mountains of Siskiyou Co. and just over the boundary in Del Norte Co., California.