Perennials, 10-20(-25) cm (rhizomes stout). Stems erect or ascending, glabrous or weakly scabrous-puberulent. Leaves usually withered at flowering; basal blades narrowly lanceolate, markedly runcinate, 3-7 cm, margins pinnately lobed (faces glabrous or weakly scabrous-puberulent). cauline much reduced, bractlike . Heads borne singly on branch tips . Peduncles 10-50 mm (usually minutely bracteolate). Calyculi of appressed bractlets (unequal, lengths to ¹/2 phyllaries). Involucres 9-12(-13) mm (phyllaries 5-6, glabrous). Florets 5-6. Cypselae tan, 3-5 mm, faces smooth to slightly bumpy, grooved; pappi of 15-25, white bristles (persistent), wholly plumose. 2n = 16. Flowering June-Sep. Open sandy places, eroded siltstones, clay flats, alkali soils; 600-1800 m; Alta., Sask.; Colo., Mont., Nebr., N.Dak., Utah, Wyo. Stephanomeria runcinata grows in the upper Great Plains and adjacent intermontane valleys.