Shrubs, erect, larger plants frequently trailing, loose, to 12(-30) dm. Twigs reddish to purplish, becoming gray to dark gray, puberulent and sparsely sessile-glandular, becoming glabrate. Leaves sweetly aromatic; petiole 1-4 mm, sparsely puberulent, glandular; blade rich, deep green abaxially, pale green adaxially, elliptic to elliptic-oblong, (5-)8-30(-45) × 4-10 mm, base ± cuneate, margins entire, plane, apex obtuse, apiculate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely sessile dotted-glandular abaxially, moderately covered with sessile crystalline-punctate glands adaxially. Inflorescences erect, (2-)4-8(-12)-flowered; bracts leaflike. Pedicels 0.5-2.5(-3.3) cm, hairy, glandular. Flowers: calyx lobes reddish pink to purple, ovate, 3-5 mm, margins ± glandular-ciliate; corolla pale reddish purple to deep pink, 16-28(-33) mm diam., petal ridges connected within corolla lobes, connate ca. 1/3 their lengths, abaxial surface ± puberulent and glandular toward apex (throat mostly glabrous); filaments 7-16 mm, with yellowish cilia densely tufted basally; anthers purple, oblong, 0.7-1.8 mm; style dimorphic, 11-15 mm (long form), 5-8 mm (short form); ovary puberulent, dotted-glandular. Seeds 0.3-0.7 mm.

Flowering early-late spring. Tuffaceous outcrops, within shaded, mesic, coniferous forests, open ridges, bare rock or shallow soil at bases of cliffs or boulders; of conservation concern; 400-1300 m; Oreg.

In cultivation, Kalmiopsis fragrans has sometimes been sold or labeled as the 'LePiniec' form of Kalmiopsis. In the wild, it has a narrower geographic range (restricted to Douglas County in the southern Cascade Mountains of Oregon) and is significantly rarer than K. leachiana.