Plants: taproot thick, with dense tufts of basal rosettes of leaves. Flowering stems simple or sparingly branched, sturdy, 10-20(-30) cm, usually with 2-3 pairs of lanceolate leaves, internodes equaling or shorter than leaves. Pedicels variable in length, ranging from much shorter than calyx to greatly exceeding it. Flowers 8-16 mm diam.; calyx campanulate to ovoid, 10-20 mm in fruit, 1-1 2 times longer than broad. 2n = 24 (Siberia), 48.

Flowering summer. Arctic tundra, gravelly and grassy places; 0-2000 m; Greenland; B.C., Man., Nfld. and Labr. (Labr.), N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Yukon; Alaska; Asia (Russian Far East, Siberia).

Subspecies involucrata, a circumpolar and panarctic taxon, is quite variable. In the western arctic there is a tendency towards larger, almost glabrous, leafier plants that have a markedly ovoid mature calyx to 20 mm. These plants often lack purple pigment and have been named subsp. elatior, but they probably do not warrant taxonomic recognition.