Vines woody. Branches 4--6-grooved, sparsely puberulous, glabrescent; bud scales ovate, 3--5 mm, glabrous. Leaves 2-ternate; petiole 1.4--6.5 cm; leaflet blades narrowly ovate, broadly ovate, or rhombic, 1.2--4 × 0.6--3 cm, papery, 3-lobed or undivided, both surfaces sparsely puberulous, glabrescent, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin sparsely denticulate or entire, apex acute to acuminate; basal veins abaxially ± prominent. Flowers 1--3 borne together with 2 leaves arising from axillary buds of old branches or solitary in leaf axils of current year’s branches, 3--3.5 cm in diam. Pedicel 3.5--6.5 cm, puberulous near apex. Sepals 4, reddish purple to dark purple, erect-ascending, broadly lanceolate to oblong, 2.2--4 × 0.8--1.5 cm, leathery, abaxially sparsely puberulous, adaxially appressed puberulous, margin abaxially velutinous, apex acuminate. Stamens 1.1--1.6 cm; filaments apically densely villous; anthers oblong, 2.5--3 mm, abaxially densely villous, apex obtuse. Ovaries pubescent. Style ca. 7 mm, densely villous. Achenes broadly ovate to subrhombic, 3--5 × 3--3.5 mm, pubescent; persistent style ca. 3.5 cm, brownish to yellowish plumose. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Aug--Sep.