A perennial herbaceous plant found on meadows, it is native to the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula and Italy.

It blooms with yellow flowers between June and August.

[2] The plant is found in several of the mountains of southern Bosnia and Herzegovina,[3] Montenegro,[4] Kosovo (the Prokletije mountain range),[5] northernmost Greece, eastern and northern Albania, the west and north of the Republic of Northern Macedonia,[3] and western Bulgaria (at elevations of 1000–1800 m in central and western Stara Planina, Vitosha Kraishte, Osogovo, Rila, Pirin and the western Rhodopes).

[2][6] Within Italy, it grows in scattered localities in the central and southern Apennines: in the Umbria-Marche Apennines [it], in Abruzzo, the Alburni in Campania, near Monte Arioso in Basilicata, and on La Sila in Calabria.

[7] The hybrid Geum molle × Geum rivale, sometimes known as Geum pseudomolle Pant., is found in eastern Montenegro's Crna Planina,[4] western Bulgaria's Vitosha,[2] and probably elsewhere.