It takes the form of a mat, clump, creeper, or upright flower, and may grow from a taproot or tangled system of rhizomes.

The flower has five white petals, each with two lobes, and five hairy green sepals at the base.

The fruit is a capsule up to 1.5 cm (0.59 in) long with ten tiny teeth at the tip, which contains several brown seeds.

Noted rock gardener Louise Beebe Wilder recommended against it in the strongest terms.

Wood and Claude A. Barr both thought that a specimen selected for good qualities had a place in a garden, such as a groundcover in difficult shady spots.