Plants 13–30 cm high. Rootstock short, tuberlike, woody, bearing a fascicle of brown fibrous roots. Stems 2–7, slender, erect. Basal leaves several; petioles 4–18 cm; blade round-cordate, 2–6 × 3–9 cm, palmately 3-parted; central segment cuneate-obovate or rhombic, 2–6 × 1–3 cm, distally 3-lobed, base cuneate; lateral segments oblique-ovate often shallowly 2-lobed; all segments abaxially pale green or purplish red. Upper leaves very small, 3-lobed or undivided, linear-lanceolate. Inflorescence 2–4-dichotomously or trichotomously branched, sometimes subcorymbose; bracts small, linear, 1.5–3 mm; rays 3–7, 2–10 mm; bracteoles 4–5, linear; umbellules 5–6-flowered. Staminate flowers 4–5 per umbellule; petals white, pinkish or pale bluish purple. Fertile flowers 1 per umbellule; calyx teeth linear, ca. 1 mm; styles ca. 1.5 mm, recurved. Fruit long-ovoid, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm, covered with erose lamellae, becoming short and straight spines when mature, never uncinate, fused at the base forming a thin tier; vittae 5. Fl. and fr. Apr–Nov.
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