Aerial flowering stems mostly ascending, 0.3-1 dm. Leaf blades glabrous on both surfaces. Perianths sparsely pilose, with glandular hairs evident. Flowering Jul-Sep. Sandy to gravelly, usually volcanic flats, slopes, and ridges, mixed grassland, sagebrush, and mountain meadow communities, oak, montane, and subalpine conifer woodlands; (800-)1600-3300 m; Calif., Idaho, Wash. Variety pyrolifolium is widely scattered; its range overlaps to a considerable degree with that of var. coryphaeum. In the Cascade Range, var. pyrolifolium occurs only in Kittitas County, Washington, and on Little Mt. Hoffman, Mt. Lassen, and Mt. Shasta in Siskiyou and Shasta counties, California. Only in Blaine, Boise, Custer, Elmore, Lemhi, and Valley counties of central Idaho are the plants relatively common, and then they nearly always occur with var. coryphaeum.