Fleshy smooth herbs with alternate leaves, and perfect flowers in terminal, oftentimes 1-sided cymes. Calyx 4—5-lobed; petals 4—5, distinct, stamens twice as many as the petals; carpels 4—5, styles short.

Perennial, tufted, smooth, flowering branches 3—7 inches long. Leaves alternate, crowded, sessile, linear ¼—½ an inch long, entire. Flowers bright yellow, nearly half an inch broad in a 5—7-forked, compact cyme, petals narrowly lanceolate, very acute.

Common throughout the Rockies in moist, gravelly or sandy soil, on river shores, and on rocky slopes, flowering in June and July.