Plants perennial, tufted or mat-forming, taprooted or rhizo-matous. Flowering shoots erect or decumbent, 6-10 cm. Leaves: flowering shoots with blade lance-elliptic to ovate or obovate, broad, apex obtuse, with tuft of silvery, ± tangled, long, woolly hairs, pubescent; those at base and on sterile shoots often marcescent, blade obovate, apex obtuse, densely pubescent. Inflorescences usually 1-flowered, sometimes with simple cyme. Pedicels straight, usually short, 5-20 mm. Petals 2 times as long as sepals. 2n = 72, 104 ± 2, 108.

Flowering spring. Northern arctic tundra; 0-400 m; Greenland; Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que.; Europe (Iceland, Russia, Scandinavia, mountains).