Perennial from a tuberous taproot. Stems erect, often branched above, 5–35 cm. Herbage glabrate with milky sap. Leaves basal and few cauline, linear, 2–20 cm long, entire or with pairs of remote, linear lobes. Heads ligulate, solitary on branch tips, nodding in bud; involucre campanulate, 10–18 mm high; phyllaries lanceolate in 2 unequal series; outer small; inner acuminate, black-villous, sometimes farinose; receptacle flat, naked. Ray flowers perfect, few to 75; ligules 7–15 mm long, yellow with purple veins. Pappus 15 to 30 scales, each with a plumose capillary bristle. Achenes fusiform, 3–8 mm long, 10- to 15-ribbed, glabrous (
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 flavifrons,
Bombus melanopygus, and
Bombus insularis (Wilson et al. 2010).