Herbs, perennial, 25-40 cm tall, glabrous or often shortly papillose, especially in inflorescence. Rhizome with apical leaf rosette from large bulb formed by very fleshy scales and petiolar bases, 15-25 × 15-20 mm. Stems 1-10, axillary from last year’s bulb scales, erect, simple or often branched, with 2 or 3 scattered leaves. Radical leaves many; petiole 2-12 cm; blade glaucous on both surfaces or sometimes adaxially green, ovate-triangular, (1.5-)3-7 × (1.5-)3-8 cm, triternate; pinnae petiolulate; pinnules shortly petiolulate or subsessile; ultimate leaflets ternatisect to biternatisect into narrowly obovate mucronate lobes; ultimate lobes or teeth 0.5-1 mm wide. Cauline leaves 2 or 3; lower petioles 4-7 cm, upper petioles ca. 1 cm, like rosette leaves but less divided, and leaflets less deeply cut. Raceme 11-18-flowered, 3-10 cm, very dense at first but soon elongating; bracts flabellate, 10-20 mm, palmately to bipalmately lobate, upper bracts smaller and deeply pectinate-dentate. Pedicel 8-16 mm, to 20 mm in fruit. Sepals whitish, 1-1.5 × 1-2 mm, finely dentate to almost entire. Corolla purple (rarely yellow?), darker toward tip; upper petal navicular-ovate, 26-31(-35) mm, shortly acuminate, abaxial crest short, 0.5-2.5 mm wide, sometimes overtopping apex, rarely absent; spur gracefully arcuately recurved at apex, rarely straight, 14-19 mm, slender, tapering to thin apex; lower petal 13-14 mm, not or very slightly saccate; inner petals 11-13 mm; nectary extended through 3/5 of spur. Stigma semicircular, with 6 or 8 marginal simple papillae; geminate papillae lateral and in basal corners. Capsule elliptic or narrowly obovoid-elliptic, 13-15 mm; style 3-4 mm. Seeds 1-1.5 mm. Fl. Apr-Jun.
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