Herbs, perennial, glabrous, glaucous. Caudex thick, dry, with only some central strands lignified, often split up, crowned by dead petioles and stems. Stems erect, glaucous, 20-60 cm, few to several, sulcate, rather thick throughout, stout, fleshy, leafy throughout, simple or sparingly branched. Leaves very glaucous; lower leaves with petiole 5-12 cm, upper ones progressively more shortly stalked to subsessile; blade oblong, bipinnate, with 4-7 pairs of primary pinnae (or fewer in uppermost leaves); leaflets deeply cut into obovate-oblong to oblanceolate acute lobes. Raceme very dense, 20-50-flowered, 3-6 cm in flowering stage, elongating to 5-9 cm in fruit, sometimes with a small branch at base; bracts 5-7(-13) mm, margin scarious, with occasional teeth, apex often long acuminate. Pedicel 4-8(-12) mm, arcuately recurved in fruit. Sepals 3-5 × 1-3 mm, deeply dentate, sometimes long acuminate, or rarely (Nan Shan) entire and to 7 × 4 mm. Corolla yellow, often with a brownish suffusion, 15-18 mm; outer petals slightly dilated toward apex that is sharply pointed and usually ± dentate and with a short dentate crest; spur of upper petal short and rounded; nectary 1/2-2/3 as long as spur. Stigma: see section description. Fruit oblong, 15-20 mm, attenuate into style 4-5 mm, 6-9-seeded. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.
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