Vines suffruticose. Branches flat or shallowly 6--10-grooved, glabrous or sparsely puberulous. Leaves 1- or 2-pinnate; petiole 2.5--5.5 cm; leaflet blades ovate-lanceolate, narrowly ovate, or linear-lanceolate, 1.2--4.5 × 0.5--1.6 cm, papery, undivided or 3-lobed near base, both surfaces glaucous, glabrous or rarely abaxially appressed puberulous, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin usually entire or sometimes to 2-denticulate, apex acute; basal veins abaxially nearly flat and inconspicuous; terminal lobes larger, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate. Cymes axillary, 3--15-flowered; peduncle 1.5--4.5 cm; bracts petiolate, lanceolate, 0.8--2 cm. Flowers 1.8--3 cm in diam. Pedicel 1.4--5.5(--7.6) cm, glabrous or rarely puberulous. Sepals 4, yellowish, ascending, lanceolate to elliptic, 1.2--2 × 0.3--0.6 cm, abaxially glabrous or puberulous, adaxially puberulous, margin abaxially velutinous, apex acute. Stamens 6--10 mm; filaments sparsely puberulous; anthers narrowly oblong to linear, 2.2--3.5 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Ovaries puberulous. Style 8--10 mm, densely villous. Achenes narrowly ovate, oblong, or narrowly obovate, 3--3.5 × 1.2--2 mm, puberulous; persistent style 2.5--4 cm, plumose. Fl. Jun--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

Slopes, along streams; 400--3800 m. NW Gansu, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, N Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan; W and SW Asia].