Tiarella austrina is a perennial, herbaceous plant with a short, slender rhizome.

It has a leafy flowering stem and relatively large basal leaves with an extended terminal lobe.

To positively identify Tiarella austrina, all of the following key features must be verified (in any order):[6][7] The key features listed above are similar to those of Tiarella nautila but the presence of the stolon rules out that species.

[1] In eastern North America, Tiarella austrina is narrowly endemic to the southeastern United States where it occurs mainly in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern North Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, northeastern Georgia, and northwestern South Carolina.

A small disjunct population of T. austrina overlaps Tiarella wherryi in northeastern Alabama (Jackson, Madison) and adjacent south-central Tennessee (Franklin).