Herbs, perennial, tufted, 3-5(-8) cm tall, fleshy, brittle. Rootstock horizontal, long, at apex crowned by dense leaf rosette, usually preceded by successive persistent leaf crowns from 1 or 2 previous years. Stem sparingly branched. Leaves fleshy, very glaucous; petiole flat, 1.5-3 cm × 4-5 mm, usually with ciliate margin; blade deltoid, ca. 1 × 1 cm, triternate; ultimate segments linear-oblong, 2-3 × ca. 1 mm. Racemes corymbose, very dense, 3-8-flowered; bracts flabellate, much divided; lower bracts 2-3 cm. Pedicel 12-18 mm, erect, at fruiting hooked-curved at apex. Flowers yellow, vertically held, only apically extended above leaves and bracts. Sepals narrowly linear. Outer petals rhombic, acute, without or with low (rarely high) crest; upper petal 18-22(-30) mm; spur straight or slightly downcurved, tapering to apex, 10-11(-16) mm; nectary ca. 2/3 as long as spur, thin; lower petal navicular; inner petals 10-12 mm. Stigma square-obovate, base rounded, apex shallowly bifid, with 2 small central papillae flanked by broader diffuse papillae, sublateral geminate papillae present. Capsule hidden by bracts, pruinose, oblong, 5-11 × 2.5-3 mm, 1-9-seeded; style ca. 5 mm, curved. Seeds 1.5-2 mm; caruncle small. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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