Erect and pointed flower stalks look like leaves. But just below the top, buds and flowers burst out from the side of the stalk on a slender stalklets. There are two to three flowers in each cluster. Three stamens project out of the centre of the flower and surround a three-parted wispy stigma. The egg-bearing ovary swells beneath the tepals and upon maturity becomes a seed capsule.
Most wild plants have purple flowers, but pink and white forms occur too.
Satin flower blooms are among the earliest of all wild flowers to appear. On south Vancouver Island you may see them as early as late February and certainly by March. The natural range extends from south Vancouver Island to California. Satin flower sneaks through the Columbia River Gorge onto the sage lands east of the Cascade Mountains suggesting that it might be suitable for southern interior B.C. gardens. The species thrives in open settings, on south Vancouver Island, mainly in shallow mossy soil on rock knolls and meadows.