Herbs, erect, infrequently polygamodioecious, 2-4(-7) × 2-5 dm; floccose or glabrous. Stems: caudex spreading; aerial flowering stems erect, slender or stout, hollow, often slightly fistulose, arising at nodes of caudex branches and at distal nodes of short, nonflowering aerial branches, 1-5 dm, floccose or glabrous. Leaves basal, occasionally in rosettes; petiole 4-10(-15) cm, tomentose; blade lanceolate or ovate to deltoid, (2-)7-25 × (0.7-)1-8 cm, densely white-lanate to tomentose abaxially, less so to glabrate and greenish adaxially, margins entire, plane. Inflorescences umbellate or compound-umbellate, 3-20 × 3-20 cm; branches floccose or glabrous; bracts 3-several, leaflike or semileaflike at proximal nodes, linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-3(-6) cm, scalelike distally, usually 1-5 × 0.5-3 mm. Involucres 1 per node, turbinate-campanulate to campanulate, 6-10 × 4-10 mm, sparsely to densely lanate, weakly glandular-puberulent, or glabrous; teeth (5-)7-10, usually not lobelike, erect to weakly reflexed, 2-4 mm. Flowers 5-6 mm, including 0.7-1.5 mm stipelike base; perianth pale to bright yellow, occasionally ochroleucous, glabrous; tepals monomorphic, oblong to oblong-ovate; stamens slightly exserted, 4-8 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes light brown, 5-6 mm, glabrous except for sparsely pubescent beak.