[2] This is a perennial herb growing from a taproot and producing an erect stem up to 50 centimeters tall.

[5] This plant grows in several types of habitat, including fields of sedge and moss, alpine regions, and the hills of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

[6][7] In 2009, a follow-up article detailed how radiocarbon dating was used to determine that the seeds were, in fact, just a few years old at the time of their discovery, and had probably fallen into the burrows not long before.

[8][7] The plant contains a neurotoxin called sparteine, possibly as a deterrent to herbivores such as the snowshoe hare.

The levels of sparteine in the leaves cycle, becoming higher at night, when herbivory is more likely to occur.