Matte saxifrage is a short perennial mat-forming plant.

The mat consists of an extended cluster of leaf rosettes growing from a rhizome, each rosette consisting of densely overlapping lanceolate entire leathery leaves up to 1.5 cm long with prominent short stiff hairs on the margin and terminated by a spine-like tip about 1 mm long.

Leaves are green, often with reddish tips and lower surfaces.

The green to red floral stem is up to 20 cm tall and is sparsely covered with similar but smaller leaves, terminating in a branched cluster of 2 to 15 flowers (usually 3 to 5), each with five white to yellowish-white oblong petals with small dark red to yellow spots.

[1] Matte saxifrage ranges from Russia to Alaska and northern and western Canada and the American Pacific Northwest.