Plants sometimes canescent basally; caudex branched. Stems: several from base, unbranched, (0.2-)0.5-1.4 (-1.8) dm, trichomes simple, 0.5-1.2 mm, mixed with smaller, dendritic ones. Basal leaves: petiole 0.7-3.5 cm, ciliate, trichomes simple; blade oblanceolate to obovate, or ovate to oblong in outline, (terminal segments linear, oblong, or ovate), 0.5-3 cm × 4-12 mm, (terminal segments 0.2-1.4 cm × 0.5-4 mm), margins usually pinnatifid, rarely apically 3 or 5-lobed, apex obtuse or subacute. Cauline leaves shortly petiolate or sessile; blade similar to basal, smaller distally. Racemes elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels usually spreading to divaricate, rarely divaricate-ascending, (often forming greater than 40˚ angle, straight or upcurved), proximalmost bracteate, 4-12 mm, pubescent, trichomes simple mixed with smaller, dendritic ones. Flowers: sepals 2-3 mm; petals white, suborbicular to obovate, 4-5 × 2-3 mm, narrowed to claw, 1.5-2 mm, apex rounded; anthers oblong, 0.5-0.6 mm. Fruits divaricate-ascending, ellipsoid to oblong, 4-angled, 5-11 × 2-3 mm, base and apex cuneate; valves each with prominent midvein; ovules 8-12 per ovary; style 0.1-0.5 mm. Seeds 1.7-2.2 × 0.9-1.1 mm. 2n = 12.

Flowering Jun-Jul. Talus scree slopes, dry calcareous gravel flats, limestone scree, tundra turf, seepages, bluffs, stony slopes, grassy quartzite slopes, gravelly lake shores; 400-1500 m; N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska.

Smelowskia media resembles S. americana in aspects of habit, flowers, and fruits. It differs by having non-appressed (versus appressed) fruits, fruiting pedicels held at wider angles (greater than 40˚ versus less), and somewhat larger seeds (1.7-2.3 × 0.9-1.2 mm versus 1.1-1.9 × 0.6-0.9 mm).