Plants cespitose; taproot stout. Stems erect, simple or branched, stout, 10-35 cm, densely pubescent with long, purple-septate, eglandular and glandular hairs. Leaves: basal numerous, blade 1.5-6 cm × 3-7 mm, somewhat fleshy, subglabrous; cauline in 1-3 pairs, blade narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-4 cm × 1-5 mm. Inflorescences sometimes forked, 1-3(-4)-flowered. Pedicels erect or angled in flower and erect in fruit, stout, usually elongate, 1-10 cm, densely glandular-pubescent with long purple-septate hairs, ± viscid. Flowers erect; calyx veined, ovate-elliptic to broadly campanulate, 11-14(-18) × 8-13 mm, veins brown or purple, densely glandular-pubescent with purple-septate hairs, lobes ovate-triangular, 2-3 mm, margins broad, membranous; corolla dingy purple-red, 13-1 2 times length of calyx, claw equaling calyx, limb obovate, 2-lobed, 2-4 mm. Capsules not contracted at mouth, equaling calyx; carpophore 1-2 mm. Seeds sooty brown, winged, round, flat, 2-2.5 mm diam.; wing inflated, broad, strongly rugose. 2n = 48.

Flowering summer. Tundra, gravel slopes, talus, cliffs; 0-2500 m; Yukon; Alaska; Asia (Russian Far East, Siberia).

The usually branched stout stems, erect flowers, broad capsule, and very large seeds with broad rugose wing distinguish subsp. porsildii.