American bistort is a perennial herb common in moist to wet subalpine meadows. The terminal, white to pinkish, spike-like inflorescences arise from unbranched jointed stems 20-50 cm tall. The leaves are mostly basal and lance-elliptic with ocreas. The flowers are small and 5-parted. Polygonum is Greek for "many" (poly) "knees" (gonu), and bistortoides is Latin for "twice" (bis) "twisted" (torta) in reference to the jointed stems and twisted rhizomes.