Herbs, biennial or short-lived perennial, 15-60 cm tall, shortly pubescent. Roots 10-15 cm, upper part ca. 1.2 cm in diam., with dense withered leaf bases. Stems 3 or 4, ascending to spreading, sparsely villous. Basal leaves in a rather flat rosette; petiole 3.5-5 cm, winged, sparsely shortly pubescent; blade glaucous adaxially, paler abaxially, 12-25 × 3-5 cm, both surfaces sparsely shortly pubescent, pinnatilobate or pinnatipartite, lobes with thick, mucronate teeth or base entire. Upper cauline leaves sessile, 3-8 × 2.5-4 cm, otherwise like basal leaves but smaller. Flowers solitary or several in a lax cyme, bracteate. Pedicel 5-7.5 cm. Flower buds ovoid, 1.5-2 cm. Sepals broadly ovate, 1.5-2 cm, shortly pubescent, margin membranous. Petals yellow or orange-yellow, broadly obovate, 2-2.5 × 1.5-2 cm; filaments 5-7 mm; anthers yellow, linear-oblong, 2-3 mm. Ovary narrowly oval, 7-10 mm, shortly pubescent; styles 2-3 mm. Capsule cylindrical, slightly broader toward base, 5-6(-11) cm × 5-8 mm, shortly pubescent, both ends acuminate. Seeds ovoid, small, tessellate. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.
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A herb that keeps growing from year to year. It is thinly hairy. The stems and roots have a yellow juice. The leaves at the base are in a dense ring. They are narrowly sword shaped with lobes along the sides. The leaves on the stems are smaller and without stalks. The flowers are orange or yellow and on slender curved stalks. They can be at the top or in the axils of leaves along the stems. The fruit is a cylinder shaped curved capsule.
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