Biennial or short-lived, monocarpic, taprooted perennial. Stems usually solitary, branched, 4–30 cm. Herbage villous, glandular. Leaves basal and cauline, 1–2 cm long, petiolate; blades obovate, twice deeply divided into linear lobes, reduced above. Inflorescence an open, often flat-topped, leafy-bracteate cyme. Flowers perfect, perigynous; hypanthium campanulate, 2–3 mm long; sepals ca. 2 mm long, setose, glandular; petals white, as long as sepals; stamens 5; pistils 5 to 10. Fruit an ovoid achene ca. 1.5 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
Stony or shallow soil of grassland, streambanks, roadsides; plains, valleys, montane (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).