[3] It is a small herbaceous perennial plant with one or more whorls of leaves on a single slender erect stem.

The broad lanceolate leaves are pale green but take on a copper hue in late summer.

The solitary white flowers (1–2 cm, 0.39–0.79 in diameter, usually with 6–8 petals) are reminiscent of small wood anemones and appear in midsummer.

The plant is a good competitor, rarely reproducing by seed but a poor colonist[6] forming extensive clonal populations interconnected by rhizomes during the growing season.

[citation needed] The rhizomes and above-ground parts are deciduous, the plant forming overwintering tubers.