Herbs, winter annual, very glaucous. Cotyledons linear. Leaves very numerous; petiole 1-3 cm, vaginate at base; blade oblanceolate, 4-11 × 0.8-2.5 cm, 2 or 3 × pinnate with deeply divided segments; ultimate lobes linear to setaceous, 1-3 mm. Flowering stalks usually several (up to 20) from rosette, usually regular dichasia, but sometimes branched below terminal dichasium, eventually with numerous flowers; first flower produced 5-15 cm from base; whole dichasium (from base to ultimate flower) with widely divergent branches, reaching 10-40 cm when fruiting; bracts/bracteoles paired, lower ones leaflike, ca. 3 × ternately divided into setaceous lobes, progressively smaller and less divided upward on dichasium. Sepals rather long persistent, ovate, ca. 2 mm, margin entire, apex acuminate. Petals yellow, sometimes with darker spots or streaks; outer petals 10-12 × 10-19 mm, 3-lobed with broad rounded lateral lobes and smaller triangular mid-lobe; inner petals 3-parted to ca. 1/2; lateral lobes broadly oblong; middle lobe elliptic, base truncate, shortly stalked, margin slightly denticulate. Capsule erect, 4-6 cm × ca. 1 mm, slightly flattened, dehiscent with 2 valves. Seeds 30-40, blackish, sharply rectangular, ca. 1 mm, slightly flattened, both sides with a cross-shaped elevation. Fl. and fr. Apr-Oct. 2n = 16.
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