Plants not cespitose; taproot producing 1-several shoots. Stems erect, branched, slender, (15-)20-40 cm, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent. Leaves: basal few, petiolate, petiole broadened at base and clasping stem, to equaling blade, blade narrowly lanceolate, spatulate, 2.5-15 cm × 1-6 mm, apex acute, glabrous to sparsely puberulent; cauline in 2-5 pairs, sessile, connate proximally, blade linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-12 cm × 1-5 mm, apex acute. Inflorescences branched, (1-)2-10-flowered; bracts and bracteoles very narrowly lanceolate, 5-15 mm. Pedicels ascending, deflexed at tip in flower, erect in fruit, slender, elongate, 1-7 cm, glabrous and sparsely pubescent. Flowers nodding; calyx veined, ovate-elliptic, 11-17 × 6-10 mm, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, veins purple, lobes spreading, ovate-triangular, 2-3 mm, apex short-acuminate; corolla dingy purple, slightly longer than calyx, claw shorter than calyx, limb ovate, 2-lobed, ca. 2 mm. Capsules 1 4 times length of calyx, teeth recurved; carpophore ca. 1 mm. Seeds brown, broadly winged, round, flat, 2 mm diam. 2n = 48.

Flowering summer. Damp calcareous tundra, river flats, heath, talus; 0-800 m; Man., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Yukon; Alaska.

Subspecies ogilviensis is rare in scattered localities across the low arctic. Its appearance is distinct, with its taller, more-slender, branched, and usually glabrous stems. However, it appears to intergrade with subsp. uralensis, and further study is required to determine its status.