General: Perennial herb from a fibrous-rooted, creeping rhizome; stems erect to ascending, branched and short-hairy above, 30-60 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves usually deciduous; stem leaves linear, unstalked, entire, usually stiff-hairy.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, several to many, solitary at the end of the branchlets, in racemes on the stem or branches; involucres 5-8 mm tall; involucral bracts graduated, linear-oblong to linear or the outer spoon-shaped with a whitish base, obtuse to abruptly sharp-pointed, the tips often loose, stiff-hairy and usually hairy on the backs; ray flowers 20-35, white, rarely pale pinkish or purplish-tinged, 5-10 mm long; disk flowers yellow.
Mesic to dry grasslands, rocky slopes, disturbed areas and open forests in the steppe and montane zones; frequent in SC and SE BC, rare in NE BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to SK and S to NM, AZ and WA.