Herbs perennial, monoecious, 8–35 cm tall. Rootstock brown, terete. Stems slender, glabrous. Radical leaves: stipules brown, membranous, abaxially glabrous; petiole glabrous; leaf blade with 3–5 pairs of leaflets; leaflets shortly petiolulate, rarely subsessile, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 0.4–1.5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base subcordate to rounded, margin obtusely serrate, apex rounded, rarely truncate; cauline leaves: stipules green, herbaceous, margin entire or serrate; leaf blade resembling that of radical leaves but leaflets fewer higher up stem. Inflorescences capitate, subglobose, 3–7 mm in diam., with male flowers surrounding females; bracts ovate, minute, membranous, glabrous, margin entire or sparsely ciliate. Sepals 4, white, narrowly elliptic to long obovate, abaxially glabrous. Stamens 7 or 8; filaments filiform, nearly 2 × as long as sepals. Style filiform, 0.5–1.5 × as long as sepals; stigma dilated, papillate. Fruiting hypanthium longitudinally 4-ribbed; sepals deciduous when mature. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.