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A mid-sized butterfly with a wingspan of 36 to 41 mm and with pink wing margins. The dorsal wing surface of males is bright yellow and has a wide black border. In contrast, the ventral wing surface is green and dull. Females may be white and have a narrower wing border. This species can be distinguished from other sulphurs by the lack of a black spot on the forewing, the absence of submarginal spots on the ventral hindwing and the white, ventral hindwing spot without a border. C. chippewa is formerly known as C. palano (L.), the Palaeno Sulphur. In, Alberta Butterflies and The Butterflies of Canada, chippewa is treated as a subspecies of C. palaeno. Eggs not described. Guppy & Shepard (2001) state that larvae are undescribed, but Opler (1999) reports that European larvae are green and have a yellow stripe on each side. Pupae are not described.

Unknown for Alberta. Potential larval host plants of C. chippewa are Vaccinium uliginosum and V. caespitosum because they are used near Churchill, Manitoba (Oosting & Parshall 1978) and in Europe (Bird et al. 1995). Adults nectar feed on a variety of flowering plants (Oosting & Parshall 1978).