Plants loosely cespitose, to 1.7 dm, with persistent, broadly lanceolate leaf bases. Leaves to 12 cm; petiole to 2/3 length of leaf; blade green on both surfaces, lanceolate, with 2-4 pairs of primary lateral lobes, hirsute; primary lobes lanceolate to narrowly strap-shaped, apex acute to rounded. Inflorescences: scapes erect and curved, hispid, trichomes light colored. Flowers to 5 cm diam.; petals yellow. Capsules broadly obovoid to ellipsoid, to 1.5 cm, strigose, trichomes brown, generally without thickened bases. 2 n = 56, 70.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Dry, sandy soils, rocky tundra communities, fellfield, blockfields, and screes at highest elevations and northernmost latitudes; 0-2300 m; Greenland; Nfld., N.W.T., Que., Yukon; Alaska; circumpolar.