Herb, perennial (though often short-lived), taprooted, subscapose, 10-30(-40) cm, glabrous, bronze-tinted in spring, becoming green, eventually with a silvery tinge. Leaves crowded at base in a dense broad rosette, very fernlike (like Cheilanthus), 10-25 × 3-6 cm; petiole 4-9 cm; blade lanceolate, (sub-)bipinnate; primary leaflets 6-12 pairs, sessile to subsessile, narrowly oblong-lanceolate; secondary leaflets sessile, broadly to narrowly ovate, lower ones 3-5-lobed, upper ones entire, segments pointed. Raceme dense at first, elongating, 10-20(-32)-flowered, shortly stalked, 10-25 cm, sometimes with a basal branch; bracts narrowly lanceolate, equal to or slightly longer than pedicels. Pedicel 2-5 mm. Flowers pale to bright yellow, sometimes with a slight brownish tint toward keel of outer petals, sometimes small, narrow, cleistogamous and without spur. Sepals ovate to lanceolate, 3-4 mm, dentate. Outer petals acute to acuminate, without crest; upper petal 12-17 mm, rather strongly upcurved; spur ascending, 2-6 mm, obtuse; nectary extended through over 1/2 of spur; inner petals 10-13 mm, narrowly crested; claw shorter than limb. Stigma bifid, lobes rather broad and flat, reflexed-geniculate, each with 2 apical papillae and a pair of geminate basal submarginal papillae. Capsule straight or slightly arcuate, linear. Seeds in 1 row, rounded in profile, slightly flattened, subobtusely keeled, faintly colliculate, ca. 1.3 mm, with conspicuous clavate elaiosome. Fl. May-Jun, fr. May-Jul.
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