[2] It is a plant of the pan-Arctic tundra and is also found in Europe at moderately high altitudes in the Alps, Pyrenees and northern Apennines.

Rough saxifrage is a perennial herb with short, tufted, basal rosettes growing in small, loose clumps to a height of about 5 centimetres (2.0 in).

The margins of the linear lanceolate leaves are fringed with short bristly hairs giving the plant a rough appearance.

[3] The flowers are up to 2 cm (0.8 in) in diameter and are borne singly or in few-flowered spikes on long, erect stems clad with a few small leaves.

It is one of only two species in the Saxifraga section Trachyphyllum (the other being Saxifraga bryoides) to extend is range into Western Europe where it is found at altitudes of between 1,400 and 3,000 metres (4,600 and 9,800 ft) in the Alps, Pyrenees and northern Apennines.