Herbs perennial, erect, 30--100 cm tall. Stems simple or branched; branches shallowly 8--12-grooved, sparsely pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves 1- or 2-pinnatisect; petiole 0.5--2 cm; ultimate lobe linear-lanceolate, elliptic, or linear, 1.5--10 × 0.1--2(--2.6) cm, leathery, both surfaces sparsely pubescent to subglabrous and reticulate, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute to obtuse; basal veins prominent on both surfaces. Cymes terminal or axillary, (1--)3- to many flowered; peduncle 3.5--8.5 cm; bracts foliaceous or undivided, lanceolate. Flowers 2.5--4 cm in diam. Pedicel 1--7 cm, puberulous to subglabrous. Sepals (4 or)5 or 6(--8), white, spreading, narrowly obovate to narrowly oblong, 1--2.5 × 0.3--1 cm, abaxially velutinous or glabrous except for velutinous margin, adaxially glabrous, apex rounded to subtruncate. Stamens 6--9 mm, glabrous; anthers narrowly oblong, 2.6--3.2 mm, apex minutely apiculate. Ovaries pubescent. Style 5.5--8 mm, densely villous. Achenes obovate, 2.5--3.5 × 2--3 mm, pubescent; persistent style 1.5--3 cm, plumose. Fl. Jun--Aug, fr. Jul--Oct.

Slopes, grassy areas, dunes; 100--1300 m. E Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, W Henan, N Hubei, N Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, E Shandong, Shanxi [Korea, Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia)].