Oxytropis bryophila is a small, cushion-forming herb in the pea family (Fabaceae) with purple flowers and pea pods in fruit. This widespread, low-growing alpine species occurs in well-drained tundra and rocky areas on both sides of the Alaska Range in Denali, and is frequently encountered growing in the alpine tundra along the Denali Park Road corridor. Plants grow only a few centimeters high from a long taproot. The caudex is covered in gray-hairy persistent stipules. Leaves are all basal, pinnate, with 5-15 elliptic leaf lets. Leaves are sparsely covered in long white or gray hairs. Flowers are generally produced in pairs, sometimes singly, at the end of a stalk not much above the leaves. Flowers have the typical bilateral symmetry of the pea family and the keel of the flower has a pointed tip (diagnostic for Oxytropis species).  The petals are purple, 12-20 mm long. The calyx is black-hairy. Fruits are a pod, green and densely covered in gray or black hairs, 3-3.5 cm long, at least twice as long as wide (usually more). This species can be identified by its small, cushion-forming habit, purple flowers and its brown stipules with gray hairs. O. scammaniana is similar, but has hairless straw-colored stipules and usually blue flowers (as opposed to usually purple in Oxytropis bryophila).

Oxytropis bryophila is an early-flowering perennial with deciduous leaves.

This species is monoecious with bisexual flowers. Oxytropis is typically pollinated by bees, but the pollination and dispersal biology of this particular species has not been studied. The fruits are pods. Plants have root nodules containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium), allowing plants to colonize nutrient-poor soils.

Dry sites.