It is native to west coast and coastal mountains of California, and northwards through the Cascade Range into Idaho and British Columbia.

Rupertia physodes is a low bushy perennial with often recumbent branches that may form a dense ground cover.

It has deep, woody roots and grows well on the dry edges of woods and prairies where it flowers in late spring and summer when few other nectar sources remain available.

The individual papilionaceous (pea-like) flowers are white to cream colored, tinged with green or purple when freshly opened and fading to a rusty brown.

At maturity the grayish one-seeded pod is tomentulose and membranaceous and can be easily rubbed off the single shiny black 5 millimetres (0.2 in) long reniform seed that it tightly encloses.