The leaf blades are 2–5 cm long, palmately shaped, and deeply cut, with 3–5 main wedge-shaped segments.

The 1–2.5 cm wide flowers are reddish-orange and saucer-shaped, with 5 notched, broad petals, in small terminal clusters.

[4] The plant produces a dry "fruit" called a schizocarp, which after maturity, breaks into roughly 10 or more seed segments.

[3] This species is native to dry grasslands, prairies, and badlands of the Great Plains and western regions of northern North America.

[5] Scarlet globemallow is recorded with a traditional use by the people of the Blackfoot Confederacy as a cooling agent, with it being ground up or mashed into a mixture applied to wounds and burns.