Herbs, perennial, 15-27 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome short, with rather few fleshy scales; roots many, to 10 cm × ca. 1 mm. Stems 1-3, simple, with 2 leaves in upper 1/3. Radical leaves: petiole 9-16 cm; blade glaucous on both surfaces but more so below, 3-4 × ca. 4 cm, ternate; leaflets stalked to subsessile, ± deeply cut into broadly obovate subacute lobes, often again shallowly 3-lobed at apex. Cauline leaves subsessile, ca. 2 × 3 cm, like radical leaves or deeply palmatisect; uppermost leaf set shortly below inflorescence, smaller and less divided. Raceme very dense, 6-10-flowered, hardly elongating in fruit; bracts obovate, 6-10 mm, subacute, entire, or lowermost larger and similar to uppermost leaf. Pedicels 5-10 mm. Sepals cut to base into a few long narrow teeth 2-4 mm. Corolla blue, darker at apex; outer petals rather narrow, acute to shortly acuminate, with (0-)0.5-1.5-mm-wide crest attenuate to both ends; upper petal 15-19 mm; spur 6-9 mm, obtuse; lower petal shallowly saccate with an additional smaller gibbosity at extreme base, 9-10 mm; inner petals 8-9 mm. Stigma square, emarginate, with 4 marginal simple papillae at apex; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Fruit (immature) ca. 6 × 2 mm; style ca. 2 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug.
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