Plants 5-20 cm, herbaceous; rhizomes thin, short, sometimes stoloniferous; rosettes not clumped; vegetative parts efarinose. Leaves not aromatic, abruptly petiolate; petiole not winged; blade without deep reticulate veins abaxially, ovate to somewhat elliptic, 1-3 × 1-2 cm, thin, margins entire, apex rounded, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences 2-4-flowered; involucral bracts saccate, prominently auriculate basally, ± equal. Pedicels nodding, thin, 10-20 mm, length 1-5+ times bracts, flexuous. Flowers heterostylous; calyx green, cylindric, 4-7 mm; corolla lavender, tube 7-10 mm, length 1.5-2 times calyx, eglandular, limb 9-20 mm diam., lobes 5-10 mm, apex deeply notched. Capsules narrowly cylindric, length 1.5-2 times calyx. Seeds without flanged edges, reticulate. 2n = 22.

Flowering summer. Salt marshes and estuaries, inland in sloughs and floodplains; 0-600 m [higher in Asia]; Yukon; Alaska; Europe; Asia.

European plants have been distinguished as subsp. finmarchia Jacquin based on a shorter corolla tube that is equal to the calyx; genetic analyses may clarify whether taxonomic recognition is warranted.

Primula nutans is often sympatric with P. borealis in western Alaska; frequently, the two are mixed on herbarium sheets. Primula nutans is easily distinguished from P. borealis by its ovate, petiolate leaves, auriculate bracts, and narrowly cylindric capsules.