Herbs, evergreen, 50-80 cm tall. Rhizome short, stout, nodose. Leaves basal and cauline, trifoliolate; leaflets lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 9-23 × 1.8-4.5 cm, leathery, abaxially lanate or becoming glabrous, adaxially glabrous, base cordate, terminal leaflet with equal rounded lobes, lateral leaflets oblique with outer lobe large, deltoid, and acute, inner lobe smaller and rounded, margin coarsely aristate-dentate, apex acuminate or long acuminate. Flowering stem with 2 trifoliolate opposite leaves. Panicle many flowered (25-70-flowered), 15-30(-50) cm; rachis glabrous. Pedicel 1-2 cm, sparsely glandular pubescent or glabrous. Flowers pale yellow, to 3.5 cm in diam. Outer sepals suborbicular, 2-5 × 1.5-3 mm; inner sepals pale yellow, broadly elliptic, 3-15 × 1.5-8 mm, apex obtuse. Petals slightly curved, pale yellow or sometimes purplish at base, horn-shaped, longer than inner sepals, 0.6-2 cm. Stamens ca. 5 mm; filaments 1-1.5 mm; anthers ca. 4 mm, valved, revolute. Pistil ca. 5 mm; ovary obliquely terete; ovules 10-12. Capsule ca. 1.5 cm; style ca. 4.5 mm, rostrate. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.
Forests, thickets, weedy places, crevices; at elevations from 300-1,700 metres.