Herbs, perennial, 10-25(-40) cm tall, glabrous; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots oblong, 20-60 × 3-4 mm. Stems 1-5, erect to ascending, slender, usually branched, with 2 or 3(-5) leaves. Radical leaves: petiole 2-10 cm; blade glaucous abaxially, green or glaucous adaxially, triangular, 2-4 × 2-5 cm, bi-to triternate; pinnae petiolulate; terminal leaflets sessile, entire to coarsely dentate or deeply divided into obovate to oblanceolate lobes 2-10 mm, apex mucronate. Cauline leaves sessile, once to twice ternate with pinnatifid or once to twice ternatifid leaflets; ultimate lobes ovate-lanceolate, acute or obtuse. Racemes 10-20(-30)-flowered, dense at first, becoming lax; lower bracts like uppermost cauline leaf; middle bracts once to twice ternatifid into 3-15 lobes; uppermost lanceolate, pectinate-dentate. Pedicels equaling or usually longer than bracts, 10-20 mm, thin, erect in fruit (in shade forms to 45 mm). Sepals minute or to 1 mm, deeply dentate. Petals pale blue to clear purplish blue; inner petals usually whitish; outer petals rather broad with shortly acuminate apex; dorsal crest attenuate in both directions and ca. 1 mm wide; upper petal 15-18 mm; spur usually slightly downcurved at apex, cylindric, 7-9 mm; nectary 1/2-2/3 as long as spur; lower petal rhombic, 9-11 mm, base narrowed, apex acuminate; inner petals 7-9 mm. Stigma square, slightly bifid; marginal papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral broad, indistinct; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and on well-developed basal lobes. Capsule linear-oblong, 8-12 × 1-1.5 mm, 5-9-seeded. Seeds ca. 1.1 × 0.9 mm, smooth. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.
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