Schiedea verticillata is a perennial herbaceous species that dies back to an enlarged root during the dry season. Stems, which can reach 0.4 to 0.6 m in length, are both upright or pendant (drooping). The stalkless leaves are fleshy, broad, and pale green, are usually arranged in threes, and measure 9 to 15 cm long and 7 to 9 cm wide. Flowers are arranged in open, branched clusters, usually 17 to 25 cm long. Opposite or whorled pale green bracts, located at inflorescence branches and underneath the flowers, measure 6 to 40 mm long at the central branch and 3.5 to 6 mm long on the side branches and underneath the flowers. Each petal-less flower is positioned on a 5 to 20 mm long stalk with five lance-shaped sepals 8 to 10 mm long, five nectaries, ten stamens, and four or five styles. The ovoid capsule measures 7 to 9 mm long and releases reddish to grayish brown seeds, about 0.7 to 0.8 mm long. This species, the only member of its genus to grow in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, is distinguished from other species by its exceptionally large sepals and, usually, three leaves per node. The fruit are capsules 7–9 mm long, narrowly ovoid. The seeds are 0.8–1.0 mm long; orbicular–reniform; slightly compressed; the surface evenly tuberculate; perisperm (nutritive tissue surrounding the embryo) starchy; hard or rarely soft; true endosperm absent. It grows in rocky scree, soil pockets, and cracks in coastal cliff faces and coastal mesic forests between 30-242 meters.