Plants perennial, tufted, forming clumps or mats, taprooted, stoloniferous, rarely rhizomatous. Flowering shoots usually erect from decumbent base, 6-20 cm. Leaves: flowering shoots with blades narrowly elliptic or lance-elliptic to oblanceolate, apex ± acute, evenly, but not densely pubescent; those near base and on sterile shoots not marcescent, blade oblanceolate to obovate, apex round. Inflorescences (1-)2-4 flowered. Pedicels usually long, slender, divaricate in well-grown plants. Petals 1.5-2 times as long as sepals. 2n = 72, 108.

Flowering spring. Low-arctic tundra, cliff ledges, talus; 0-300 m; Greenland; Man., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Sask.; n Europe (Scandinavia).