Herbs, biennial, 50-100 cm tall, glabrous. Stems weak, squashy, hollow, narrowly winged-ridged, leafy throughout, diffusely branched, often with accessory branches above. Petiole narrowly winged, 5-10 cm in lower leaves, absent to 3 cm in upper leaves; blade of middle leaves triangular in outline, to 15 × 20 cm, upper leaves much smaller, glaucous abaxially, green or slightly glaucous adaxially, bi-to tripinnate, primary and secondary leaflets long stalked; ultimate leaflets deeply divided into oblong to obovate, obtuse, slightly mucronate lobes. Racemes 7-17-flowered, soon becoming rather lax; bracts entire, broadly ovate, apically finely dentate; uppermost bracts oblanceolate, 3-5 × 1-3 mm. Pedicel 3-5 mm, curved in fruit. Sepals minute. Corolla pale yellow or usually white, often with purplish suffusion toward keels; outer petals acute; dorsal crest usually very narrow, hardly overtopping apex; spur of upper petal 7-10 mm, tapering to tip, slightly downcurved; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal 7-8 mm, apical part reflexed, navicular, lower part conspicuously saccate (rarely shallowly saccate) but constricted at very base into short narrow claw; inner petals 6-8 mm. Capsule cylindric, 10-15 × ca. 2 mm, 5-8-seeded. Seeds in 1 row, ca. 1.5 mm, smooth; elaiosome lingulate, small. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.
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