Actinospora dahurica Turczaninow ex Fischer & C. A. Meyer, Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1: 21. 1835; Actaea dahurica (Turczaninow ex Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Turczaninow ex Fischer & C. A. Meyer; A. pterosperma Turczaninow ex Fischer & C. A. Meyer.

Rhizome robust, blackish. Stems to 1 m tall, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Proximal cauline leaves 2 or 3 × ternate, long petiolate; petiole to 17 cm; leaf blade triangular, to 22 cm wide; terminal leaflet broadly rhombic, 5--10 × 3.5--9 cm, 3-parted, margin serrate; lateral leaflets long elliptic-ovate, slightly oblique, abaxially sparsely pubescent at veins, adaxially glabrous. Distal cauline leaves similar to proximal cauline ones, but smaller, shortly petiolate. Inflorescence compound racemose, 7--20-branched; rachis and pedicels gray glandular pubescent; bracts subulate, apex acuminate. Pedicel 2--8 mm. Flowers unisexual. Sepals broadly elliptic to broadly obovate, 3--3.5 mm. Petals forked, 2-parted, with 2 sterile anthers. Filaments filarious, 4--5 mm; anthers ca. 1 mm. Carpels 4--7, sparsely gray pubescent or subglabrous, sessile or shortly stalked. Follicles 7--8 × ca. 4 mm, appressed white pubescent, apex truncate, stalks 7--8 mm. Seeds 3 or 4, brown, ellipsoid, ca. 3 mm, with membranous scaly wings all around. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep. 2n = 16.

In scrub, forests, grasslands; 300--1200 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi [Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East and E Siberia)].