Taprooted perennial. Stems erect, simple or branched, 10–50 cm. Herbage hispid, villous. Leaves basal and alternate, petiolate; blades oblanceolate, 3–12 cm long, entire, dentate or pinnately lobed ca. halfway to the midvein, becoming sessile above. Heads radiate, solitary on peduncles 4–30 cm long; involucre hemispheric, 1–2 cm high; phyllaries ovate to lanceolate, strigose to tomentose, ciliate, spreading; receptacle convex with stiff setae. Ray flowers 12 to 18, sterile, yellow with purple bases; ligules 10–35 mm long, 3-lobed. Disk flowers perfect, 60 to 120, purple-villous at the tip; corolla 5–9 mm long; style appendages elongate, short-hairy. Pappus of 6 to 10 awned scales. Achenes obconic, hirsute at the base, 2–6 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).