Vines woody. Branches 4--6-angulate, sometimes shallowly 4-grooved, glabrous or only puberulous on nodes; bud scales deltoid to triangular, 0.2--1.8 cm, abaxially appressed puberulous. Leaves 2-ternate; petiole 3--5.5 cm; leaflet blades lanceolate, narrowly ovate, or ovate, 2--5 × 1--4.5 cm, papery, undivided or 3-parted, both surfaces sparsely puberulous or only subglabrous on basal veins, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin serrate, apex acuminate; basal veins abaxially nearly flat. Flowers solitary, 3--6 cm in diam. Pedicel 8--13 cm, sparsely puberulous. Sepals 4, blue, purple, or white, ascending, narrowly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3--4(--4.8) × 1--1.5(--2.1) cm, abaxially densely puberulous, adaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulous, apex acute. Staminodes narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, slightly shorter than or equaling sepals, sometimes inner ones linear-spatulate to oblanceolate-linear, abaxially densely puberulous, adaxially glabrous or puberulous. Stamens 1--1.4 cm; filaments pubescent; anthers narrowly oblong to linear, 2.5--4 mm, abaxially puberulous on connective, apex obtuse. Ovaries pubescent. Style 0.8--1.2 cm, densely villous. Achenes obovate, ca. 4 × 2.5 mm, sparsely pubescent; persistent style 3.5--4 cm, plumose. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.