Plants (4-)9-30 cm. Stems glabrous. Leaf blades oblanceolate to narrowly obovate or oblong-oblanceolate, 19-120 × 2-11(-16) mm, cauline bases not auriculate or clasping, distalmost cauline abruptly reduced. Heads not immediately subtended by leaflike bracts. Involucres 10-17 mm. Phyllary apices long-acuminate to long-acute, not apiculate or cuspidate. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 10-45. Cypselae 4.5-6.1(-7) mm, faces glabrous. 2n = 10. Flowering Jul-Sep. Barren selenium hills and flats, alkaline clay flats, shale-alkali ridges, disturbed roadsides; 2000-2300 m; Wyo. Oönopsis wardii grows in Albany, Carbon, and Natrona counties.