[3] It is a small perennial herb forming a low tuft of herbage from a branching caudex covered in the persistent bases of previous seasons' leaves.

[1][2] It may be more appropriately described as a Wyoming plant with a small disjunct occurrence in Utah.

[2] It grows in a number of mountain and foothill habitat types, mostly located in the subalpine zone, with some at lower elevations and some in the alpine climates higher up.

Most occurrences are located in the open on rocky substrates with little vegetative cover.

There may be a few trees in surrounding terrain, such as limber pine, Engelmann spruce, and Douglas-fir.