It is native to the western United States, where it grows in the alpine climates of high mountain ranges from California to Montana to New Mexico.

This is a petite perennial herb taking a clumped form just a few centimeters tall, its herbage growing on a caudex and taproot unit.

The leaves are one to two centimeters long, linear or lance-shaped, and coated in rough hairs.

The plant blooms in a profusion of flower heads each one to two centimeters wide with hairy to hairless, lance-shaped phyllaries.

[3] The fruit is a hairless achene tipped with a pappus of bristles.