Plants 10-25(-40) cm. Leaves: stipules of rosette leaves barely expanded at bases of petiole, stipules of all cauline leaves conspicuous; petiole 1-6 cm; blade 0.5-2 cm, shallowly 5-9-lobed, base cordate to truncate, apex rounded. Inflorescences loose, cymose panicles, 2-20-flowered, 5-40 cm, stipitate-glandular; bract subtending pedicel scalelike. Flowers: hypanthium free from ovary 0.5-1 mm, narrowly obconic-campanulate, 3-3.5 mm, short stipitate-glandular; sepals greenish with purple margins and tips, narrowly triangular-lanceolate, 2-3.5 mm, apex acuminate; petals erect, usually pink to violet, rarely white (sometimes drying bluish), elliptic to obovate, unlobed, 6-9 mm (including claw); stamens included, 1-1.5 mm; ovary 1/2 inferior; styles absent. Capsules brown, ovoid, 6-7 mm. Seeds ellipsoid and prismatic, 0.5 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering Apr-Jun. Wet, mossy, rocky crevices and cliffs; 0-3000 m; Alta., B.C.; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.

Suksdorfia violacea is found from the mountains of Montana to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains of British Columbia and Washington and to northwestern Oregon.