Plants solitary or tufted, with bulbils on caudices. Leaves ± basal; petiole absent; blade linear to narrowly elliptic, 0.5-4 cm, fleshy, base cuneate, margins subentire, ciliate, surfaces hirsute. Inflorescences usually 2-3+-flowered, open, lax thyrses, sometimes solitary flowers, (flowers terminal, proximal usually replaced by bulbils, sometimes bulbils absent), 2-25 cm, stipitate-glandular. ( Pedicels reflexed.) Flowers: sepals reflexed, elliptic; petals white, each with 2 basal yellow spots, triangular to broadly ovate, clawed, 3-5 mm, longer than sepals; filaments linear, flattened; pistils connate 1/2+ their lengths; ovary superior, (to 1/3 adnate to hypanthium). Capsules green to yellow, purple tinged, valvate.

Flowering summer. Wet meadows, rocky ledges; 1600-4500 m; Calif., Idaho.

Specimens of Micranthes bryophora from the disjunct populations in Idaho have been called Saxifraga bryophora var. tobiasiae; they appear to overlap in morphology with the California plants and are not distinguished here.