Plants 5-40 cm. Leaves 2-5; blade often purple-spotted or suffused with purple, proximal blade 3-18 × 1-6 cm. Inflorescences: floral bracts lanceolate, 15-50 × 5-15 mm, the larger often suffused with purple, extending well beyond flowers. Flowers magenta, pink, or white; sepals prominently oblique and erect at base, upwardly curving forward or downward, ovate-lanceolate, 9-11(-13) × 3-6 mm, awned; petals ovate-lanceolate, 6-9 × 3-4 mm, awned; lip often magenta- to red-spotted, suborbiculate to obcordate, 8-12 × 8-12 mm, shallowly 3-lobed or entire, tip of middle lobe apiculate; spur 5.5-7.5 mm, 1/2-2/3 as long as ovary. 2n = 40, 42.

Flowering late spring--mid summer. Moist open tundra, meadows, bogs; 0--800 m; Alaska; e Asia (Russian Far East).

Dactylorhiza aristata var. kodiakensis has been separated primarily on the basis of its being uniform instead of variable like the typical variety (C. A. Luer 1975); supplementary characters all partially overlap. While this variety is not recognized here, variability in the Alaskan Fischer´s orchids merits detailed taxonomic study.