Herbs, biennial, (10-)15-30(-42) cm tall, glabrous. First year with 1 or sometimes several leaf rosettes; second year with flowering stems and membranous remnants of broad petiolar bases of rosette leaves; head of root 2-4 mm in diam., rarely to 2 cm and multi-headed. Stems suberect, densely leafy from base (though basal leaves sometimes withering early), much branched, sulcate. Cauline leaves all stalked: petiole 3-6 cm, base ?conspicuously vaginate; blade glaucous abaxially, green or glaucous adaxially, ovate-triangular, 2-6 × 2-5 cm, triternate to bi-(tri-)pinnate; leaflets deeply lobed into oblanceolate lobes 2-5 × 1-2 mm, apex acute, mucronate. Raceme 4-12-flowered, very lax below, with lowest flower apparently from axil of cauline leaf, in fruit lowest internodes ca. 3 cm; central bracts flabellate-divided, segments acute; uppermost bracts obovate, entire. Pedicel ca. 5 mm above, basal ones 20-30 mm, slender, arcuate in fruit. Sepals deeply fimbriate-dentate, 1-2 × 1.5-2 mm. Petals pale red (rarely blue?); outer petals: limb broadly spreading, subacute, mucronate, crest 1-2 mm wide, entire, just reaching tip; upper petal 16-22 mm; spur straight to slightly upturned, sometimes slightly arcuately downcurved, cylindric, 8-11 mm, broad; nectary 2.5-3 mm; lower petal spatulate, 11-13 mm, claw slightly saccate or bisaccate, limb rounded, apex mucronate, crest short; inner petals 9-11 mm. Stigma square, with 4-6 marginal apical papillae; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes (basal lobes often indistinct). Capsule narrowly lanceolate-oblong, flattened, 17-26 × 2-3 mm, 9-19-seeded, explosively dehiscent. Seeds sub-biseriate, 1.6-1.8 mm, smooth. Fl. and fr. Apr-Sep.
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