A perennial herbaceous plant from the buckwheat family with a thick, shortened, strongly curved rhizome of dark red color, with numerous thin roots, for which it is sometimes called a serpentine. At the break, it is brown-pink, like the body of a boiled crab. Actually, this is where the popular name-cancer necks came from. From other species of this numerous genus, the snake mountaineer differs, in addition to the characteristic appearance of the root, by a thick, dense spike-shaped inflorescence. Stems are 30-100 cm high, erect. Basal and lower stem leaves - with long winged petioles, oblong or oblong-lanceolate plates with a rounded or heart-shaped base; upper leaves-lanceolate or linear, sessile, with a slightly wavy edge. The inflorescence is a thick, dense, cylindrical spike, later it begins to resemble a brush due to the elongation of the peduncles. The flowers are small, pink, sometimes white. The fruit is ovoid or oval, triangular, shiny, dark brown or greenish-brown nut. Blooms in the mountain snake in May — June, the fruits ripen in June — July.