Plants perennial. Rhizome short, thick. Stems 5--15 cm tall in flower, to 30 cm tall in fruit, unbranched or rarely branched, glabrous, basally with membranous scales. Leaves not fully expanded at anthesis; petiole to 6.5 cm; leaf blade triangular, ca. 7.5 × 9 cm, glabrous, 2 or 3 × finely pinnately divided; leaflets long petiolulate; ultimate segments narrowly ovate to lanceolate, apex acute. Flowers 2.8--3.5 cm in diam. Sepals ca. 9, pale grayish purple, oblong to obovate-oblong, 1.4--1.8 cm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Petals ca. 10, yellow, obovate-oblong to narrowly lanceolate, 1.4--2 × 0.5--0.7 cm, glabrous. Stamens ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Ovary puberulous. Styles ca. 0.8 mm, bent; stigma globose. Achenes obovoid, ca. 3.8 mm, pubescent. Fl. Mar--Apr.
Found in mountains. Forests and grassy slopes in E Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, China.