Plants (4-)8-30(-40) cm; scape glandular-puberulent. Caudices obvious at anthesis, often horizontal and elongated, slender to stout, (often woody); roots reddish; bulblets absent. Leaves (2-)3.5-12(-19) × 0.7-2.5(-4.5) cm; petiole slightly winged or slender (at least basally); blade ovate to oval, rarely oblong to spatulate, base slightly to obviously decurrent onto stem, abruptly tapering to petiole, margins subentire to crenate-dentate, surfaces minutely glandular-puberulent or glabrous. Inflorescences 2-7-flowered; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 3-8 mm, glandular-puberulent. Pedicels 0.5-2.5(-3) cm, glandular-puberulent. Flowers: calyx green to dark green, sometimes speckled with reddish purple, 4-7 mm, glandular-puberulent, tube 1.5-3 mm, lobes 5, (2-)2.5-4 mm; corolla tube yellow or rarely white with or sometimes without maroon, thick, wavy ring, lobes 5, pink or magenta to lavender, rarely white, (5-)8-15 (-20) mm; filaments distinct or slightly connate, maroon, 0.2-0.8 mm; anthers (3-)4-6 mm; pollen sacs usually maroon, sometimes pale purple and speckled with maroon, connective black, smooth; stigma not enlarged compared to style. Capsules reddish brown to purplish, operculate, cylindric-ovoid, 6-12 × 3-4.5(-5) mm, glabrous or slightly glandular-puberulent apically; walls thin, pliable. Seeds without membrane along edges. 2n = 44.

Flowering summer. Moist to boggy depressions, flats and rocky, often calcareous slopes, stream banks, lake shores, outcrops and screes mainly in meadows, low dunes, sparse conifer woodland, willow and heath tundra communities near melting snow or on permafrost; 0-1700(-1900) m; B.C., N.W.T., Sask., Yukon; Alaska; e Asia (Russian Far East).

Dodecatheon frigidum is the northernmost species in the genus. It is found from northern British Columbia, southern Northwest Territories (Mackenzie District), and northwestern Saskatchewan, and Yukon (including its northern islands), and most of Alaska except near the immediate southern coast and Aleutian Islands. The species is disjunct onto the Chukotsk Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The elongated, usually woody, nearly horizontal caudex is diagnostic.