[4] It is native to western North America, from British Columbia and Alberta to California to Colorado, where it grows in moist areas in forests and on mountain slopes.

It is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing a prostrate, creeping, branching stem up to about 20 centimeters long, sometimes forming mats.

The oval leaves are up to about a centimeter long and are borne in opposite pairs on the stem.

Solitary flowers occur in the leaf axils, each borne on a short pedicel.

The small flower has no petals, just four to five blunt-tipped green sepals each a few millimeters long.