Perennial with a branched caudex and scabrous foliage, forming dense mats to 15 cm across. Stems ascending, branched, 2–10 cm long. Leaves crowded, overlapping, linear-subulate, leathery, 3–7 mm long with white-scarious, attenuate stipules longer than the leaves. Flowers terminal, usually solitary, hidden among the leaves; sepals 5, 3–5 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, long-attenuate and awned, united below, yellowish; petals absent or minute; stamens 5; Style 1 with 2 stigmas. Fruit a utricle enclosed by the calyx (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
Sparsely vegetated, often stony soil of exposed slopes, ridge crests; plains, valleys to montane (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).