Plants ca. 80 cm tall, glabrous. Stems branched. Petiole 3--4.8 cm; leaf blade 2-ternate, ca. 25 cm; petiolule 1.9--4.5 mm; leaflet blade rhombic to ovate, 5.5--13 × 3--6 cm, papery, base cuneate or broadly so, apex acute or mucronate, 3-lobed; lobes 2--5-toothed, apex rounded or obtuse; veins raised abaxially, flat adaxially. Inflorescence paniculate, many flowered. Bracts lanceolate. Pedicel 6--10 mm. Sepals early deciduous, obovate, ca. 3.5 mm. Stamens 3--4 mm; filament narrowly oblanceolate, broader than anther; anther narrowly oblong, 0.8--1 mm, apex obtuse. Carpels 10--13; style circinate, equaling ovary; stigma persistent, ca. 1 mm. Achenes sessile; body narrowly ovoid, ca. 3 mm; veins ca. 8. Fl. Jul.

This species is similar to Thalictrum faberi, which differs in having leaflets 3-lobed and base rounded, truncate, or subcordate, margin 5–10-toothed on each side, and achenes 3–6.

* C Sichuan (Emei Shan).