Fendler's waterleaf is an erect perennial from a short, thick rhizome with thickened fibrous roots with a single stem from 20-80 cm tall. The hairs on the stems point backwards or downwards. The leaves are few but large, long petiolate, and roughly as wide as they are long. The blade measures up to 15 cm wide and somewhat longer. The leaves are pinnatifid with 7-11 sessile or nearly sessile leaflets or lobes (See photo at right). The margins are coarsely-toothed, with from 4-8 teeth per side of each leaflet. Both sides of the leaves are rough to the touch or hairy.
The inflorescence is compact with the calyx segments of variety albifrons thin or linear, 4-6 mm long and with long bristly margins. The corolla is 6-8 mm long with green, greenish-white, blue or purplish petals.
Fendler's waterleaf may be found in moist open places or thickets from the lower valleys to well up in the mountains.
Fendler's waterleaf may be found from southern British Columbia along the coast and east to the Cascades and through the Olympic Mts. to northern California. Eastward, it may be found in southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, central Idaho, southern Wyoming, southeastern Utah, and New Mexico.
