Herbs, perennial, 20-60 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome densely set with fleshy scales, terminating in conspicuous bulblike bud. Stem suberect to ascending, sometimes reddish, sparingly branched above, with 4-6 scattered leaves. Radical leaves few; petiole 4-11 cm, vaginate at base; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, broadly ovate-triangular, 3-5 × 3-5 cm, bi-to tripinnate; pinnae 3 or 4 pairs, petiolulate; pinnules petiolulate or sessile, ovate, 0.7-1.7 × 0.5-1 cm, crenately dentate to lobed, teeth mucronulate. Cauline leaves: lower petiole to 16 cm, upward petioles shorter, uppermost petiole ca. 1 cm, shortly vaginate; blade like radical leaves, but lower ones larger, upward gradually smaller. Racemes 5-10 cm, at fruiting to 15 cm, 10-23-flowered; bracts oblanceolate, 2-5 mm, shortly stalked, acuminate, entire or often with a few small teeth, lowermost bract often more divided. Pedicel ca. 10 mm, thin, straight in fruit. Sepals purplish red, rounded, 1.5-2 mm, deeply dentate. Corolla rose or amaranth; outer petals without crest, narrow, acute, with long prominent mucro; upper petal 20-26 mm; spur straight or slightly upturned from base, tapering to apex, 14-20 mm; nectary 3-5 mm; inner petals 8-9 mm. Stigma broader than long, apically emarginate, with 8 simple marginal papillae; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Capsule reflexed from straight thin pedicel, elliptic, 8-13 × ca. 3 mm, 5-20 seeded; style ca. 4 mm. Seeds in 2 rows, ca. 1 mm, smooth; caruncle small. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.
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