Herbs, perennial, 35-60 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome short, with fleshy scales that become dark on drying, terminating in a small rosette of leaves. Stems 1-4, erect, 35-60 cm, branched, with 2-4 leaves from middle upward. Radical leaves: petiole 8-18 cm; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, 4-6 × 5-8 cm, bi-(tri-)ternate with leaflets shallowly to deeply divided into obovate entire to divided lobes; ultimate lobes 2-8 mm wide, obtuse; cauline leaves smaller, shortly stalked, less divided. Racemes dense at first, elongating in fruit, 10-30-flowered; bracts 6-11(-15) mm, upper linear to narrowly oblanceolate, entire to slightly dentate, lowermost usually larger and divided, or even similar to uppermost leaf. Pedicel thin, 10-20 mm, 13-25 mm in fruit. Sepals 1-2 mm, finely dentate. Corolla blue to purplish blue; outer petals with short dentate crest not overtopping apex; upper petal 19-24 mm; spur straight or slightly downcurved, cylindric, not tapering, 10-12 mm; nectary ca. 2/3 as long as spur; lower petal 12-13 mm, with broadly rhombic, acuminate, dentate limb attenuate to gibbous claw; inner petals 10-12 mm. Stigma square, narrowly emarginate with 4-6 marginal simple papillae; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and on basal lobes. Capsule pendent from erect-spreading pedicel, obovoid to elliptic, 5-12-seeded, 10-15 × 3-4 mm, explosively dehiscent; style ca. 3 mm. Seeds ca. 1.5 mm, smooth. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.
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