Leaves: stipules 3–6 mm, membranous; petiole (0.5–)1–9(–12) cm; leaflets dark green abaxially, light green adaxially, sessile or petiolulate, 0.5–2.5(–3) × 0.2–1.5(–2) cm, teeth roundish, mucronate, surfaces sparsely appressed-pilose. Pedicels 1–3(–5) mm, usually minutely stipitate-glandular. Flowers: epicalyx bractlets often becoming reddish with age, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–3.5 mm, shorter than sepals, sparsely hirsute or strigose; sepals often becoming reddish with age, 2.5–5 mm, strigose to sparsely pilose; anthers 0.3–0.5 mm; styles 0.4–0.7 mm. Achenes greenish brown to dark brown. 2n = 14.
Flowering stems 5–10 cm, from a multicipital caudex, lfless or few-lvd below the congested cymes; basal lvs overtopping the stem; lfls cuneate to obovate, 1–3 cm, sparsely pilose, 3–5-toothed at the tip; sep longer than the bractlets, twice as long as the pet; 2n=14. Circumboreal, s. to alpine regions of e. Que. and n. N.H., and to Colo. and Calif. June, July.