Taprooted biennial. Stems erect or ascending, usually branched, 6–30 cm. Herbage glabrous to tomentose with milky sap. Leaves basal and cauline, petiolate to sessile above; blades 2–20 cm long, deeply pinnately divided into remote, linear-lanceolate lobes. Heads ligulate, solitary on branch tips, expanding in fruit; involucres campanulate 12–25 mm high in fruit; phyllaries lanceolate in 3 to 5 unequal series, sparsely tomentose, scarious-margined; receptacle flat, pitted, naked. Ray flowers perfect, 30 to 100, yellow; ligules 2–4 mm long. Pappus tawny, plumose, capillary bristles. Achenes fusiform, 8–17 mm long, ca. 10-nerved, glabrous (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).