[4] The stem is topped with a large inflorescence of bright pink to purple or white flowers.

The bracts vary in shape from being long and thin like a blade of grass (linear) to being shaped like the blade of a trowel (trullate) and are located under the stems that attach the flowers to the main stem of the raceme (the pedicels).

[7] At the base of the flower, the fused sepals have five delta shaped lobes with either a smooth surface or fine, bristle-like hairs, and are 0.5–1.5 millimeters long.

[18] Asa Gray published a description of Bentham's species as the variety Pedicularis groenlandica var.

[19][20] The validity of even the subspecies was questioned by the mid-20th century, with Charles Leo Hitchcock writing in 1955, "...no clear-cut taxonomic segregation seems possible.

Harold Norman Moldenke published a new description of Pedicularis surrecta as Elephantella groenlandica var.

[3] In addition, throughout the time that Elephantella was used, the older classification as part of Pedicularis continued to be used by other botanists.

[15] The second part of its binomial name, "groenlandica", refers to its first scientific collection on the island of Greenland.

Within these environments it strongly prefers moist habitats such as bogs, fens, marshes, forested swamps, springs, stream banks, and floodplains.

[17] In the Elk Mountains of central Colorado, it was found as part of a survey of vascular plants; it grows immediately adjacent to six glacially-derived ponds and in wet meadows.

[33] Similarly, when observed in Labrador's Mealy Mountains east of Goose Bay, the plants were found growing along a lake shore and in marshy areas.

[34] It was only found in the southern part of the Yukon Territory, in the same boggy habitat of the Watson Lake area.

[35] In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature assessed Pedicularis groenlandica for the IUCN Red List as least concern.

Populations in Labrador, Nunavut, and Manitoba were found to be vulnerable (S3), and imperiled (S2) in the Yukon, Alaska, and Saskatchewan.

Bumblebees (genus Bombus) vibrate their flight muscles while holding onto the flower to release the concealed pollen.

[14] The butterfly Euphydryas gillettii has been observed laying its eggs on Pedicularis groenlandica colonies in Idaho.

Captive experiments show no significant differences in survivorship of caterpillars feeding on its leaves in comparison with its more common host plant, Lonicera involucrata.

Evans and Wick list the seeds as having physiological dormancy and use gibberellic acid to enhance germination.

[39] Gardens with very wet, nearly boggy, areas may grow P. groenlandica, particularly with black alpine sedge (Carex nigricans), one of its most frequent host plants.