Perennial from a branched caudex. Stems several, erect to ascending, 5-30 cm. Leaves: petioles with long, spreading hairs and sparsely puberulent or glandular; blades of 3(5) ovate, coarsely dentate to pinnately lobed leaflets, 5-20 mm long, white-tomentose beneath, with stiff long hairs above and beneath. Inflorescence an open, 2- to 7-flowered cyme. Flowers: sepals lanceolate, 3–8 mm long, stiff-hairy, glandular; bracteoles shorter and narrower; petals yellow, 4–5 mm long, barely longer than the sepals. Achenes smooth, ca. 1.5 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
POLLINATORS The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap:
Bombus bifarius,
Bombus fervidus,
Bombus frigidus,
Bombus rufocinctus,
Bombus occidentalis,
Bombus pensylvanicus,
Bombus impatiens, and
Bombus flavidus (Thorp et al. 1983, Wilson et al. 2010, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Colla et al. 2011, Koch and Strange 2012, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).