It is a thornless perennial up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) tall, woody at the base, but very thin higher above the ground.

The fruit is deep red or dark purple, with an unusual hardiness to frost and cold weather conditions.

Carl von Linné considered the Arctic raspberry – åkerbär in Swedish[11] – a great delicacy in his Flora Lapponica (1737).

In the Pacific Northwest of western Canada and the northwestern US, it is sometimes called the nagoon or nagoonberry, a name derived from the Tlingit neigóon.

[7] A measure of the quality of its fruit is expressed in its Russian name княженика knyazhenika, signifying the "berry of princes".