It forms diffuse colonies with tiny, inconspicuous flowers and small, more or less round leaves and grows mainly in mossy places in beech forest.

Townsonia deflexa is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, sympodial herb which grows in small groups with its tubers connected by a fleshy root.

The leaves of both flowering and non-flowering plants are very thin with wavy margins and a relatively long petiole.

[3][2][4] Townsonia deflexa was first formally described in 1906 by Thomas Cheeseman and the description was published in his book Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

It is found on the North, South, Stewart, Auckland and Campbell Islands of New Zealand.