Herbs, perennial, caespitose, ± glaucous, 5-15 cm tall, glabrous. Rootstock long, branched, apically with membranous residual petiolar bases. Stems simple, without leaves or base with 1 leaf (rarely 2 leaves). Radical leaves many, slightly shorter than scapes; petiole 2-6 cm, long vaginate; blade oblong, 3-5 × 1-2 cm, pinnate; pinnae 2-4 pairs, subsessile, orbicular to ovate, deeply ternatisect to pinnatifid or sub-biternatisect; lobes often overlapping, obovate to lanceolate, 3-5 × 1-3 mm, acute. Raceme lax, 5-15-flowered, occupying 1/2 of stem or more; lower bracts 15-25 × 5-10 mm, cuneate, pinnatilobate with 3-5(-10) acute lobes; upper bracts (ob)lanceolate, 9-15 × 2-4 mm, entire, acute to acuminate. Pedicel thick, 1-3 cm, in fruit arcuately recurved, 2-4(-6) cm. Sepals whitish, 1-2 × 1-2 mm, sharply dentate. Corolla very fragrant, orange or yellow, with greenish and brownish markings toward keels of outer petals, veins often distinct, brown; outer petals acute to subobtuse, broadly crested, with spreading margin; upper petal 20-27 mm, crest not reaching spur; spur almost straight, slightly downcurved at tip, cylindric, 10-15 mm, thick, obtuse; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur, thick; lower petal broadly and indistinctly saccate at base; inner petals 10-11 mm; claw slightly shorter than limb. Stigma square with 4 apical papillae, laterally and on basal lobes with geminate papillae. Capsule obovoid, 8-15 × 3-4 mm, 1-6-seeded (or more?); style ca. 4 mm. Seeds ca. 2 × 2.5 mm, smooth; caruncle small, appressed. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Aug.
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