Herbs perennial, 9-24 cm tall. Rhizomes elongate, slender. Stems glandular hairy. Basal leaves 1-4; petiole 1-8.3 cm, rigidly glandular hairy; leaf blade orbicular to cordate to reniform-cordate, 0.8-3.7 × 0.8-3.9 cm, both surfaces rigidly glandular hairy, base cordate, margin dentate, obscurely 5-7-lobed. Cauline leaves usually 1 or absent, shortly petiolate; leaf blade ca. 1.6 × 1.4 cm, rigidly glandular hairy. Inflorescence a raceme, 2-11 cm, several flowered; pedicels 1-5 mm, shortly glandular hairy. Sepals subovate, 1.6-2 mm, 1-veined, apex subacuminate. Petals yellowish green, ca. 4 mm, margin deeply pinnately ca. 9-cleft; segments linear. Stamens 10, shorter than sepals. Carpels 2, connate; ovary semi-inferior, broadly ovoid; stigmas 2-lobed. Fruit a capsule; carpels distally free, glandular hairy. Seeds few, black, shiny, narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jun-Sep. 2n = 14, 28.
Stems 0.5–2 dm, hairy below and glandular throughout; basal lvs rotund to reniform with cordate base, obscurely lobed, crenate, hairy; cauline lf 1 or none, ovate, sessile, few-toothed; racemes 2–10 cm; pedicels 1–5 mm; fls yellowish-green; pet 3–5 mm, very deeply pectinate-fimbriate, with divergent segments; seeds few, black, shining, 1 mm; 2n=28. Bogs and wet woods, usually in moss; Lab. to Mack., s. to Pa., Mich., Minn., and Mont.; e. Asia. May, June.