Plants ± suffrutescent, erect, with a pleasant odor when fresh. Rhizome stout, ca. 5 mm thick, upper part densely covered with withered remains of petioles. Stem 10-30 cm, few branched or unbranched. Leaves all nearly basal; stipules brown, lanceolate, 2-or 3-fid or-partite, pubescent glandular; leaf blade 6-14 cm at anthesis, 1-pinnatisect; segment pairs 12-18, sessile, 4-20 mm, pinnatifid or pinnatipartite into obtuse lobules. Inflorescences short, few-flowered racemes; bracts leaflike, ovate-oblong, 4-6 mm, margin often irregular; bracteoles 2, lanceolate-ovate, shorter than bracts. Flowers nodding at first, lower ones remote, ca. 1.2 cm wide; pedicel to 2 cm, glandular hairy. Sepals unequal, elliptic-oblong, 7-9 mm, glandular pubescent. Petals yellow, occasionally orange near base, suborbicular-obovate, 1.25-1.5 × as long as sepals, sparsely ciliate and strigose on inner surface, narrow at base. Filaments 5-6 mm, villous. Mericarps ca. 3 mm, strigose, rugose. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 10*.