Perennials; (cespitose, not pulvinate); caudex branched (covered with persistent petiole remains, branches sometimes terminating in sterile rosettes); scapose. Stems unbranched, 0.3-1(-1.5) dm, hirsute throughout, trichomes simple, 0.2-0.7 mm, with short-stalked, 2-rayed ones, (smaller). Basal leaves rosulate; shortly petiolate; petiole base and margin ciliate, (trichomes simple, 0.5-1 mm, midvein obscure); blade (somewhat fleshy), oblanceolate to obovate, 0.4-1(-1.8) cm × 1.5-4(-6) mm, margins entire, surfaces hirsute, abaxially mostly with stalked, 2-rayed trichomes, 0.1-0.8 mm, rarely with fewer, simple ones, adaxially with mostly simple ones, 0.5-1 mm. Cauline leaves 0. Racemes 4-15(-21)-flowered, ebracteate, elongated in fruit; rachis not flexuous, hirsute as stem. Fruiting pedicels horizontal to divaricate-ascending (often somewhat decurrent basally), straight or curved upward, 4-10 (-14) mm, hirsute as stem. Flowers: sepals ovate, 2-2.7 mm, pubescent, (trichomes simple, short-stalked, 2-rayed); petals yellow, spatulate, 4-6 × 1.5-2.5 mm; anthers oblong, 0.4-0.6 mm. Fruits ovate to ovate-lanceolate, slightly twisted, flattened, 4-9 × 3.5-5 mm; valves pubescent, trichomes usually simple, 0.1-0.45 mm, rarely with fewer, short-stalked, 2-rayed ones; ovules 10-14(-16) per ovary; style 0.1-0.6(-0.8) mm. Seeds ovoid, 1-1.4 × 0.6-1 mm. 2n = 50.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Granitic rock outcrops, boulder slopes, alpine fellfields; 3000-4000 m; Calif.

Draba lemmonii was so broadly circumscribed by C. L. Hitchcock (1941) and R. C. Rollins (1993) that it included plants here assigned to three different species. For a list of features distinguishing D. lemmonii from the recently-segregated D. longisquamosa and D. cyclomorpha, see I. A. Al-Shehbaz and M. D. Windham (2007). Draba lemmonii is apparently restricted to alpine areas of the Sierra Nevada in Fresno, Inyo, Madera, Mono, and Tuolumne counties.