Plants 30–70 cm. Leaves: proximal blades 3–8 cm, margins undulate or weakly lobed, faces densely lanate to woolly; cauline leaves (on proximal ¹/2 of stems) lanceolate to ovate (2.5–3.5 cm). Heads 1–3. Involucres obconic to hemispheric, 13–18 mm diam. Phyllaries 8–10 mm, outer lanceolate to narrowly obovate, apices acuminate. Ray florets 16–23; laminae usually yellow, sometimes red-tinged distally, 6–10 mm. Disc corollas yellow (lobes often red-tinged). Cypselae 6–8 mm; pappus scales subequal, 1.5–2 mm.

Flowering late spring–summer. Rocky slopes, talus, and flats, mostly coniferous forest, sometimes chaparral, on granitic and metamorphic substrates; 1200–2100 m; Calif.

Subspecies gabrielensis grows in the San Emigdio and San Gabriel mountains.