Roots carrot-shaped, up to 5 mm in diam. Caudexes robust, multibranched, covered with persistent scales toward apex; scales ovate, ca. 3 × 1 mm. Stems caespitose, ascending, 5.5-16 cm, simple or with short branches, densely white villous to subglabrous. Leaves alternate, gradually increasing in size toward apex, sessile or nearly so; blade elliptic, obovate-lanceolate, or broadly ovate, 5-16 × 3-8 mm, both surfaces gray-white hirsute or glabrous, base cuneate, margin entire or sometimes slightly sinuate, slightly recurved, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded. Flowers solitary and terminal, subtended by a whorl-like aggregation of 4 or 5 leaves; pedicel 1-2 cm, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely hirsute. Calyx glabrous, except yellow hirsute inside lobes; tube broadly cylindrical, 8-12 mm, base rounded or truncate, enlarging in fruit; lobes triangular, 3-4 × ca. 3 mm. Corolla white or various shades of yellow, 2.5-3 cm, outside glabrous, inside densely white-or yellow villous at throat; lobes obovate-oblong or obovate-elliptic, 14-16 × 5-7 mm, apex often very sparsely brown villous. Capsule subequal to calyx in length; style exceeding corolla tube. Fl. Jul-Aug.