Herbs, perennial, 15-60 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome densely set with fleshy scales, terminating in conspicuous bulblike bud. Stems gray-glaucous, terete, juicy, branched especially above, with 4 or 5 leaves. Petiole terete, lower petioles 5-10 cm, upper petioles 2-5 cm; blade glaucous on both surfaces, adaxially paler toward midvein, often with a bronzy tint and pale dots in teeth-incisions, triangular, 6-10 × 5-7 cm, bipinnate; pinnae petiolulate; pinnules sessile, ovate, 1-2 × 0.5-1 cm, crenately dentate to lobed. Racemes 10-20-flowered, 5-10 cm, elongating to 15 cm in fruit; bracts 2-5 mm, shortly stalked, lower bracts ternatisect; upper bracts oblanceolate, almost entire. Pedicel 10-15 mm, thin, straight in fruit. Sepals purplish red, 2-3 × 2-3 mm, laciniate-dentate. Corolla rose or amaranth; outer petals without crest, narrow, acute, with long prominent mucro; upper petal 25-30 mm; spur slightly upturned from base, straight or sometimes upcurved, tapering to apex, 20-25 mm; nectary 4-5 mm; inner petals 9-11 mm. Stigma rounded-deltoid with 10 marginal papillae; geminate papillae on basal lobes. Capsule broadly elliptic to obovoid, ca. 10 × 3 mm, 5-14-seeded; style ca. 4 mm. Seeds in 2 rows, ca. 1.2 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.