General description: Perennial plants over 10 cm tall.  Plants form broad mats with numberous short caudices.  Plants are acaulescent; leaves are all basal.  Leaves are once pinnately compound with<br>lanceolate leaflets 5-40 mm long and over 5 mm wide.  Flowers are yellow.  Involucel bractlets are conspicuous and longer than the flowers, 5-10 mm in length.  Strong lemony or anise scent (Colorado Native Plant Society 1997, Spackman et al. 1997, Ackerfield 2012, Weber and Wittmann 2012).

Look Alikes: Other species in the genus Aletes have narrower leaflets.

Phenology: In Colorado this species is known to flower in April and produce fruits in May (Colorado Natural Heritage Program 2012).

Found in canyonlands in pinyon-juniper and desert shrub communities; on sandstone ledges and in sandy soils derived from the Entrada Formation or the contact point of the Wingate and Chinle Formations (Spackman et al. 1997, Ackerfield 2012, Weber and Wittmann 2012).

Elevation Range: 4,541 - 5,807 feet (1,384 - 1,770 meters)

Colorado endemic: No
Global range: Colorado Plateau, Navajo Basin; Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah, and Mesa County, Colorado.
State range: Known from Mesa County in Colorado. Estimated range within Colorado is 67 square kilometers (26 square miles), calculated in GIS by the Colorado Natural Heritagae Program in 2008 by drawing a minimum convex polygon around the known occurrences. Also known from Utah.

The primary threat is likely potential trampling by hikers (Rondeau et al. 2011), though impacts are not yet documented or noticeable. It is not known if all of the occurrences are or are not threatened by these activities. The known occurrences are within Colorado National Monument and the BLM Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness Area and Colorado Canyons NCA. This species is relatively well protected by its inaccessible habitat and by its occurrence in Colorado National Monument and Arches National Park (O'Kane 1988).