It produces a flat rosette of simple, ovate to broadly ovate green leaves. The leaves are incredibly soft and velvety to the touch because they are covered in dense, long, and short glandular hairs. When dry, the leaves take on a highly unique papery-membranous texture.
Beneath the soil, it forms a small, turnip-shaped, elongated, or sometimes necklace-like (moniliform) root tuber measuring up to 4 cm in diameter.
In spring, as the winter leaves begin to dry up, it sends out striking red, branched flowering stalks (peduncles). The stalks support loose clusters of 4 to 8 blossoms that range in color from pale cream-yellow to soft pale pink. The elongated petals are paired with exceptionally long, reddish hypanthia (flower tubes).
