Leaf blades dull, pale green abaxially, shiny, dark green adaxially, leathery, basal blade (1-)2.5-9.5 × (0.4-)1-4.5 cm. Inflorescences pedunculate, 1-12 cm, glandular to stipitate-glandular, proximal branches sometimes remote, especially in fruit; bracts sometimes subtending pedicels, scalelike. Flowers: hypanthium shallowly campanulate, 0.3-0.6 × 1.2-1.8 mm, glandular to stipitate-glandular; sepals triangular to ovate, 0.8-1.5 × 0.7-1.1 mm, margins entire, apex rounded or retuse, glabrous or sparsely stipitate-glandular; petals narrowly spatulate or oblanceolate, 1-2.2 × 0.4-0.7 mm, margins entire; stamens exserted; filaments 0.8-1.5 mm; anthers 1-locular, round to transversely elliptic, 0.1-0.2 × 0.2-0.3 mm, dehiscent by broad, terminal openings; pistils 2-3 × 1-1.8 mm; styles slightly spreading, cylindric. Capsules erect, green, red, or purple, narrowly ovoid, tips divergent, 6-9 mm. Seeds 80-120, 3.2-4.8 × 0.4-0.6 mm, ends tapered. 2n = 14.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Wet meadows, stream banks, bogs, seepage areas, wet cliffs and talus slopes, heathlands; 0-2300 m; Alta., B.C., N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska, Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.

The Aleuts of Alaska use an infusion of Leptarrhena pyrolifolia leaves to treat influenza, and the Thompson Indians of British Columbia apply a poultice of chewed leaves to wounds (D. E. Moerman 1998).