Plants solitary or tufted, short, thick-rhizomatous. Leaves basal; petiole rounded, 4-15 cm; blade round, ovate, or reniform, 3-15 cm, thin, base cordate, margins serrate to dentate, ciliate, surfaces hairy to glabrate. Inflorescences 15+-flowered, congested, spikelike thyrses, 15-50(-70) cm, tangled, pink- to purple-tipped stipitate-glandular. Flowers: sepals reflexed, oblong to ovate; petals cream to yellowish, not spotted, oblong, not clawed, 3-4.5 mm, longer than sepals; filaments narrowly club-shaped; pistils connate at least 1/2 their lengths; ovary superior, (to 1/3 adnate to hypanthium). Capsules green, purplish tinged, ± folliclelike, (basally connate).

Flowering summer. Wet tundra, heaths, moist, rocky areas, streamsides; 0-1700 m; Yukon; Alaska.