Vines perennial, herbaceous or erect herbs. Stems to 2 m when scandent or to 35 cm tall when erect, shallowly 4--8-grooved, puberulous. Leaves pinnate, (5--)7(--9)-foliolate; petiole 2.5--4.5 cm; leaflet blades broadly to narrowly ovate, 2--9 × 1--5 cm, papery, undivided or 3-lobed, both surfaces sparsely puberulous to subglabrous, abaxially ± reticulate, base rounded to subcordate, margin entire, apex acuminate to acute; basal veins abaxially prominent. Flowers usually solitary and terminal or in axillary usually 1-flowered cymes, nodding, 1.5--2.5 cm in diam.; peduncle 0.2--4 cm, sometimes absent; bracts ovate to narrowly ovate, 0.7--4 cm, undivided or 3-lobed. Pedicel 0.6--1.5 cm, densely pubescent or glabrous. Sepals 4, purple, erect, ovate to ovate-oblong, 1.4--3 × 0.7--1.2 cm, abaxially appressed brownish pubescent, subglabrous, or glabrous, adaxially glabrous, margin abaxially velutinous, apex acute to attenuate. Stamens 1--1.4 cm; filaments brownish villous; anthers linear, 4--5 mm, abaxially densely pubescent on connective, apex with a 0.3--0.6 mm apicula. Ovaries puberulous. Style 0.8--1.2 cm, densely villous. Achenes broadly obovate to elliptic, 5--7 × 4--5 mm, appressed pubescent; persistent style 3--4 cm, brown plumose. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Aug--Sep.

Forests, forest margins, slopes, scrub, thickets; 500--1000 m. NE Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, NE Nei Mongol, E Shandong [Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East)].