Plants 20-30(-100) cm. Basal leaves: blades elliptic or lance-elliptic to lanceolate, 12-30 cm, margins entire, not ciliate, faces usually ± hirsutulous or scabrellous, sometimes glabrate; cauline leaves mostly smaller, narrower, distal-most usually petiolate, rarely sessile and clasping. Heads borne singly or 2-4+ in ± corymbiform arrays. Involucres turbinate to hemispheric, 18-25+ mm diam. Phyllaries 16-34, subequal, ± herbaceous, margins ciliate, faces glabrous or strigillose to hispidulous; outer 18-22(-30) mm (not or seldom surpassing discs). Ray florets 11-12; laminae (25-)35-50 mm (abaxially hirsutulous). Cypselae 9-10 mm, glabrous. 2n = 38. Flowering Apr-Jun. Meadows, openings in pine, oak, or spruce-fir forests; 600-2200(-3000) m; Ariz., Colo., N.Mex., Utah. At the northern margin of the range, glabrate plants with the general habit of Wyethia arizonica (introgressants with W. amplexicaulis) exhibit greater frost-hardiness (a characteristic of W. amplexicaulis) than do other members of the species.