Elegant Clarkia tolerates several different growing conditions and it is not uncommon to encounter many such plants growing in a large patch along an open slope. Its colorful, spidery-looking flowers show a variety of colors, ranging from white to purple to pink to crimson. They appear in leaf axils and are fairly regularly spaced along an erect stem. Blooming occurs from April through June. The flowers have 4 pinkish-purple (or occasionally white) spade-shaped petals that radiate outwards from the flower head and are each an inch or so long, 8 stamens of which 4 are crimson-orange and 4 are cream colored, and 4 sepals. The seed pod and sepals are hairy but the rest of the plant is smooth. The ovate leaves are around 3 inches long and about an inch wide.

The species name unguiculata means "little red claw or nail " and refers to the narrowing shape of the petals where they connect to the flower head. Its genus name Clarkia is named after Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.