Herbs, biennial, glaucous, 20-50 cm, with taproot. Stems stout, 5-10 mm in diam., striate, branched and leafy throughout. Leaves: petiole 5-20 cm; blade glaucous on both surfaces or green adaxially, triangular, broader than long, 7-17 × 8-25 cm, bi-to tripinnate; pinnae (2 or)3 pairs, petiolulate, lowermost pinnae of large low leaves almost as large as remainder of leaf; pinnules 2 or 3 pairs, subsessile; ultimate leaflets ovate, crenately lobed to deeply dentate, segments or teeth rounded to oblong, mucronate to shortly acuminate. Racemes 15-28-flowered, 10-20 cm in fruit; bracts narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 5-10 mm, often long acuminate. Pedicel 4-7 mm, at fruiting slightly decurved. Sepals triangular, 1-1.5 mm, slightly dentate. Corolla yellow, abaxially purplish brown toward apex. Outer petals straight, narrow, apically acuminate, without dorsal crest; upper petal 15-18 mm, spur downcurved at apex, 4-6 mm, rounded-obtuse; nectary 1/2-2/3 as long as spur, thin; inner petals 11-13 mm. Stigma transverse, straight, with 2 forward-projecting papillae and ?3 diffuse terminal/lateral papillae. Capsule oblong, flattened, 19-25 × ca. 4 mm, with beak 3-4 mm and style ca. 2.5 mm, ca. 20-seeded. Seeds in 2 rows, orbicular, 1.6-2 mm, face ± sharply colliculate, back rounded, spinulose; caruncle cupular, large. Fl. and fr. May-Oct.
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