Vines perennial, herbaceous. Branches shallowly 4--8-grooved, sparsely puberulous to subglabrous. Leaves 2--4 × pinnatisect; petiole 0.6--2.4 cm; pinnae 4 or 5 pairs, opposite or subopposite, triangular; ultimate lobes linear, narrowly oblong, or narrowly triangular, 1--11 × 0.6--4 mm, papery, sometimes sparsely ciliolate, both surfaces glabrous, or abaxially sparsely puberulous, glabrescent, margin entire or 1-denticulate, apex obtuse to rounded and often mucronate, midvein abaxially ± prominent. Cymes axillary or terminal, 1--5-flowered; peduncle 1--9.5 cm; bracts foliaceous. Flowers 1--1.8 cm in diam. Pedicel 3--9 cm, usually sparsely to rarely densely puberulous. Sepals 4, yellowish, erect, lanceolate-oblong to oblanceolate-oblong, 1.2--2 × (0.3--)0.4--0.8 cm, both surfaces subglabrous, abaxially margin velutinous, apex ± acute and often recurved. Stamens 6--9 mm; filaments sparsely puberulous; anthers oblong, 1.8--2.2 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Ovaries puberulous. Style 5--8 mm, densely villous. Achenes broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, 3--4 × 2--3 mm, puberulous; persistent style 1.6--2.7 cm, plumose. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Sep.

Scrub, slopes, along streams; 300--3000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, E and N Qinghai, N Shaanxi, Shanxi [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].