Herbs, perennial, 7-25 cm tall, with leaves usually densely papillose below (especially radical leaves); stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots densely fascicled, spindle-shaped, 5-15 × (1-)2-3 mm, subsessile or with narrow stalk 5(-10) mm. Stems 1-3, erect, slender, with 1 or 2(or 3) leaves in upper 1/2. Radical leaves: petiole 2-7 cm; blade ca. 1 × 1 cm, ternate; leaflets gray-glaucous abaxially, obovate, entire to ± deeply divided. Cauline leaves sessile, 1-2 × 1-2 cm, deeply biternatisect to irregularly palmatisect; segments oblanceolate, acute, entire or often with a few lateral lobes or teeth. Raceme 3-5 cm, 4-10(-15)-flowered; lower bracts like upper cauline leaves; upper ones lanceolate, ca. 5 mm, entire. Pedicel slender, 5-10 mm in flower, in fruit sharply reflexed and 8-17 mm. Sepals white or pale pink, 0.5-1 × ca. 0.5 mm, deeply dentate. Corolla blue, sometimes with purplish or pinkish tinge; dorsal crest of inner petals dark blue, except for protruding white or pale pink tip; outer petals spreading to reflexed, not or narrowly crested; upper petal much narrower than lower petal, 14-16 mm, emarginate at apex; spur straight or downcurved at apex, cylindric, 6-7 mm; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal 9-11 mm, limb rounded to emarginate, sometimes with a mucro in notch, 6-8 mm wide, claw straight, oblong; inner petals 7-8 mm, dorsal crest clearly overtopping apex. Stigma square; marginal papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral, broad, diffuse; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and on large basal lobes. Capsule linear-oblong, 8-14 × ca. 1.5 mm, 7-15-seeded; style ca. 1.5 mm. Seeds in 1 row (rarely ± in 2 rows), 1-1.1 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug.
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