Herbs, biennial or perennial?, 15-60 cm tall, with prominent 1-celled hairs to 0.4 mm, especially at base of stem, above glabrous except for base of branches and base of pedicels. Root with few tightly set fleshy-thickened storage roots, 3-7 cm, 0.5-1 cm in diam. at attachment, long tapering. Stems few, first erect, later diffuse and scrambling through herbage, leafy and branched throughout, not tapering below. Radical leaves few, early withering; petiole 5-12 cm. Cauline leaves 3-5, all stalked; petiole 3-10 cm, all with small membranous dentate auricle at base; blade pruinose abaxially, green adaxially, broadly biternate, 3-5 × 3-4 cm; pinnae long petiolulate; pinnules shortly stalked or subsessile; ultimate leaflets unequally ternatisect, segments again shallowly 2-or 3-lobed; ultimate segments oblong to obovate, obtuse, mucronate. Racemes 4-10-flowered, corymbose at young anthesis, considerably elongating in fruit; lower bracts like upper cauline leaves: petiole 1.5-2 cm, blade 2-3 × 2-3 cm; middle bracts deeply ternatisect with cuneate-flabellate shallowly lobed segments; uppermost ones lanceolate with long narrow lateral teeth or laciniae. Pedicel 12-30 mm, very slender, gracefully arcuate in fruit. Sepals 0.3-1 × 0.2-1 mm, slightly to deeply dentate. Petals pale blue to red or lilac, or with mauve spur, blue apex, and paler middle; outer petals rather narrow, subacute; dorsal crest absent; upper petal 15-19 mm; spur straight or slightly downcurved at apex, cylindric, 7-9 mm; nectary ca. 2/5 as long as spur; lower petal subspatulate, 9-11 mm, spur with short gibbosity near base; inner petals 8-10 mm, claw ca. as long as limb. Stigma narrowly cleft to 40%-60%; papillae flanking cleft narrow, distinct; laterally with broad indistinct papillae; lateral geminate papillae clearly submarginal (laminal); basal lobes short, tipped with geminate papilla. Capsule oblong, 15-22 × 2-2.5(-3) mm, 10-17-seeded; style ca. 2.5 mm. Seeds ± in 2 rows, ca. 1.2 mm, smooth; caruncle cupular, small. Fl. (Feb-)Apr-Jul, fr. May-Jul.
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